A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1951 (DOST Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1569-1669
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Dool(e)ful, -full, a. Also: dowl(l-, doul-, dolfull. [e.m.E. doolefull (1568), doolfull, var. of doleful, Duleful a.] Distressing, sad, melancholy.(a) a1570-86 Maitland Maitland Folio MS clxxix. 107.
Sen dowlfull [Q. doulfull] dolour and delyit Ilk ane with vthair fast ar bound 1641 Acts V. 682/2.
The manifold dowllfull experience of many … kirks of Scotland(b) a1585 Polwart Flyt. 562 (T).
Delay his death … To doolfull dolour derflie or ȝe dryve him 1600-1610 Melvill 506.
So this doolfull decay, … [is] most pitifull and most lamentabill 1626 Garden Worthies 34.
Thy freinds & fathers fall, That on that doolfull day att Dupline dy'd 1639 Baillie I. 191.
Besyde … our old doolefull experience of their intollerable insolencies 1648 Lanark Presb. 65.
Desireing the presbyterie to commiserat his doolefull and desolat condition 1669 Glasgow B. Rec. III. 115.
A lantrone … for preserving the candle for eschewing of skaith … as doolfull experience hes laitly taught
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"Doolful adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 13 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/dooleful>
