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Dismal vs Dolorous - What's the difference?

dismal | dolorous | Related terms |

Dismal is a related term of dolorous.


As adjectives the difference between dismal and dolorous

is that dismal is disappointingly inadequate while dolorous is solemnly or ponderously sad.

dismal

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Disappointingly inadequate.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Liverpool 0-1 West Brom , passage=Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.}}
  • Gloomy and bleak.
  • Depressing.
  • *, chapter=12
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "dismal" is often applied: failure, performance, state, record, place, result, scene, season, year, economy, future, fate, weather, news, condition, history.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * dismal science

    dolorous

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Solemnly or ponderously sad.
  • * 1596 , , The Faerie Queene , Book 5, Canto 4:
  • Through dolorous despaire, which she conceyved,
    Into the Sea her selfe did headlong throw,
    Thinking to have her griefe by death bereaved.
  • * 1645 , , "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", stanza 14:
  • . . . Hell itself will pass away,
    And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.
  • * 1859 , , A Tale of Two Cities , ch. 30:
  • From this prison here of horror, whence I every hour tend nearer and nearer to destruction, I send you . . . the assurance of my dolorous and unhappy service.
  • * '>citation
  • * 2001 June 24, Stefan Kanfer, " Author, Teacher, Witness," Time :
  • As World War II came to a close, the gaunt and dolorous child was liberated at yet another death camp, Buchenwald.