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View synonyms for dirge

dirge

[ durj ]

noun

  1. a funeral song or tune, or one expressing mourning in commemoration of the dead.
  2. any composition resembling such a song or tune in character, as a poem of lament for the dead or solemn, mournful music:

    Tennyson's dirge for the Duke of Wellington.

  3. a mournful sound resembling a dirge:

    The autumn wind sang the dirge of summer.

  4. Ecclesiastical. the office of the dead, or the funeral service as sung.


dirge

/ dɜːdʒ /

noun

  1. a chant of lamentation for the dead
  2. the funeral service in its solemn or sung forms
  3. any mourning song or melody


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Derived Forms

  • ˈdirgeful, adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of dirge1

1175–1225; Middle English dir ( i ) ge < Latin: direct, syncopated variant of dīrige (imperative of dīrigere ), first word of the antiphon sung in the Latin office of the dead (Psalm V, 8)

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Word History and Origins

Origin of dirge1

C13: changed from Latin dīrigē direct (imperative), opening word of the Latin antiphon used in the office of the dead

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Example Sentences

Now again they are choosingA fall filled with funeral dirges.

Typically, a jazz funeral procession begins at a church or home, and musicians join the walking mourners along the route to the cemetery playing slow, sorrowful dirges.

From Ozy

As he sees it, the long days of illness have turned his life into a tedious, meaningless dirge with nothing to look forward to other than its end.

The 19th century, though, was a 100-year dirge from one horrid epidemic to another.

The design team sent out a dirge of mostly camel-colored leggings, leather shorts, tunics, and jackets.

The funeral dirge for Rockefeller Republicans, blaring since several key Tea Party wins this week, has been playing for decades.

The media sounded the funeral dirge and the Democrats formed circular firing squads.

It was the dirge of the British Empire in America, “The World Turned Upside Down.”

And old Sanders again tapped in the rhythm of a dirge on his parchment-bound cranium.

Nature seemed to lie stark and stiff and dead, and that accursed craake her dirge.

She sat where he had left her, and was crooning again the weird tuneless dirge at which Marto had been appalled.

It certainly looked as if a true prophet was writing that dirge!

Even the sea birds that circled around them seemed screaming a dirge.

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