doleful Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite filled with or evoking sadness
    mournful.
    • the child's doleful expression
    • stared with mournful eyes
    • mournful news

WordNet

Dole"ful adjective
Definitions
  1. Full of dole or grief; expressing or exciting sorrow; sorrowful; sad; dismal.
    With screwed face and doleful whine. South.
    Regions of sorrow, doleful shades. Milton.
    Syn. -- Piteous; rueful; sorrowful; woeful; melancholy; sad gloomy; dismal; dolorous; woe-begone. - Dole"ful*ly, adv. -- Dole"ful*ness, n.

Webster 1913