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  1. lugubrious love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Mournful, dismal, or gloomy, especially to an exaggerated or ludicrous degree.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Characterized by or expressing mourning or sorrow; mournful; doleful; funereal; dejected: as, lugubrious wailing; a lugubrious look or voice.
  2. Exciting mournful feelings; pitiful; dismal; depressing: as, a lugubrious spectacle or event.
  3. Synonyms Sorrowful, melancholy, doleful.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. gloomy, mournful or dismal, especially to an exaggerated degree.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Mournful; indicating sorrow, often ridiculously or feignedly; doleful; woful; pitiable.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. excessively mournful

Etymologies

  1. From Latin lūgubris ("mournful; gloomy") (Wiktionary)
  2. From Latin lūgubris, from lūgēre, to mourn. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “He heaved a great sigh, and said in lugubrious tones:”

    The Black Moth: A Romance of the XVIII Century

  • “A certain lugubrious yarn, "My Graves," was my masterpiece.”

    The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career

  • “He saw the two whale-boats land on the beach, and the sick, on stretchers or pick-a-back, groaning and wailing, go by in lugubrious procession.”

    The Jessie

  • “A Southern correspondent sends the following incident from real life, which illustrates the well-known negro fondness for so-called lugubrious festivals:”

    Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873

  • “Lady Teazle and Mrs. Oakley were certainly no exceptions to this experience of a cold fit of absolute incapacity with which I received every new part appointed me, and my studying of them might have been called lugubrious, whatever my subsequent performance of them may have been.”

    Records of a Girlhood

  • “In some of the tributes I've found on the web, the word "lugubrious" kept popping up: "excessively mournful".”

    Archive 2009-04-19

  • “You click on the word "lugubrious" and it gives you a dictionary definition, or the word "Taj Mahal" and it shows you a jpg picture.”

    Archive 2009-07-01

  • “Media Mob reader Peter Van Allen writes in to point out the recurring pattern: Besides McCarthy and Irving, Kakutani has applied the "lugubrious" label to Graham Swift, Don DeLillo, Mark Helprin, J.M. Coetzee and many more.”

    Lugubrious and Repetitive

  • “Who will point out to Kakutani that she's overused 'lugubrious'?”

    Lugubrious and Repetitive

  • “A quick search turns up 41 instances of "lugubrious," "lugubriously," or "lugubriousness" in Kakutani's work -- about two a year, on average.”

    Lugubrious and Repetitive

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. mournful
  1. doleful
  1. woful
  1. pitiable
  1. depressing
  1. depressed
  1. sorrowful

equivalents (1)

Other words for ‘lugubrious’

  1. sorrowful

same context (19)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. doleful
  2. plaintive
  3. mournful
  1. somber
  2. rueful
  3. piteous
  1. anguished
  2. crestfallen
  3. dejected
  1. dolorous
  2. melodious
  3. funereal
  1. monotonous
  2. reproachful
  3. wistful
  1. tremulous
  2. dismal
  3. ominous
  1. eerie

reverse dictionary (9)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. lugubrious
  1. lacrymental
  1. funereal
  1. lugubriously
  1. lugubriousness
  1. goth
  1. doleful
  1. lacrymose
  1. rueful

tags (3)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. popular
  1. SATWOTD
  1. ppwp_shouldknow

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘lugubrious’.

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Comments

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  • TimBo CAROUSEL May 26, 2011

  • blafferty Oh, I love you all, and your dogs' lugubrious faces. May 2, 2011

  • reesetee Chained, did you know that Prolagus has an English cocker spaniel who, though not lugubrious, deserves two or more comments? May 2, 2011

  • chained_bear He obviously never met my dog. (EIGHT!! Boo-yah!) May 2, 2011

  • Wordplayer My band teacher thinks that he created this word... May 1, 2011

  • milosrdenstvi The next planet was inhabited by a tippler. This was a very short visit, but it plunged the little prince into deep dejection.

    "What are you doing there?" he said to the tippler, whom he found settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles.

    I am drinking," replied the tippler, with a lugubrious air.

    "Why are you drinking?" demanded the little prince.

    "So that I may forget," replied the tippler.

    "Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who already was sorry for him.

    "Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head.

    "Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.

    "Ashamed of drinking!" The tippler brought his speech to an end, and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.

    And the little prince went away, puzzled.

    "The grown-ups are certainly very, very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.

    -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery Jul 24, 2009

  • super-labmaven dbmag9 - I LOVE your comment. I will never think of lugubrious the same way, which is the point, right? Feb 28, 2009

  • reesetee There. Now you're even. Unless.... *mwwahaha* May 1, 2008

  • Prolagus I love lugubrious dog faces. And I would love your dog's. (seven) Apr 30, 2008

  • reesetee That's five. Oh, wait--that's six, if I say "chained_bear's dog." Apr 30, 2008

  • chained_bear Well, I'm going to talk about my dog so she'll have seven as well. My dog is a hound dog. She has a lugubrious expression, even when she's happy. Apr 30, 2008

  • Prolagus OK, now he has seven. Apr 30, 2008

  • reesetee That your dog deserves two comments? Well, doesn't every dog? :-)

    c_b, spaniel sounds all spangly to me. Apr 30, 2008

  • chained_bear ... oh... What were you saying? Apr 30, 2008

  • Prolagus I didn't say my dog looks lugubrious! Apr 30, 2008

  • chained_bear I think Cocker spaniels do look kind of mournful. Not as mournful as, say, Bassett hounds (mine is not a Bassett though).

    Does anyone else think spaniel is a good-mouthfeel word? Apr 30, 2008

  • reesetee Really? I wouldn't have thought it possible for an English cocker spaniel to look lugubrious. :-) Apr 30, 2008

  • Prolagus My dog, an English cocker spaniel, would deserve two comments as well. Apr 30, 2008

  • reesetee Because your dog is especially lugubrious? :-) Apr 30, 2008

  • chained_bear Why did I say the same thing twice? Apr 30, 2008

  • chained_bear This is the exact word to describe my dog's expression. Sep 28, 2007

  • brtom "(He lifts his mutilated ashen face moonwards and bays lugubriously.)"
    Joyce, Ulysses, 15 Feb 8, 2007

  • chained_bear Lugubrious describes, at any given moment, the facial expression of my hound dog. Feb 1, 2007

  • dbmag9 Your mind oozes glumness. What word could better describe your emotion? Dec 2, 2006

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‘lugubrious’ has been looked up 10490 times, loved by 71 people, added to 436 lists, commented on 24 times, and has a Scrabble score of 13.