doleful
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
When no one is around, the doleful ex-judge listens to Italian gangsta rap, and sometimes even raps along with it, suggesting he isn’t quite the stereotype others assume him to be.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 4, 2025
Set in the high-rises of the Cabrini-Green housing project in 1992, when the beleaguered complex’s decline was palpable, it sounds like a recipe for doleful poverty-gazing.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 18, 2024
That doleful mood pervades these interpretations: a sadly beautiful tone; an emotional climax that evaporates rather than reaching a resolution; a heartbreakingly simple plunk of high keys.
From New York Times • Jan. 25, 2024
Shouldn’t all movies feature a disillusioned astrophysicist, particularly one as charmingly doleful as Stanfield’s character?
From Seattle Times • Jul. 25, 2023
Beneath his doleful eyes the skin was already darkening in pouches.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Vocabulary lists containing doleful
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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"The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton
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"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards
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