Plural form of doleful when used as a noun; people or things characterized by sadness or things that express sorrow.
Archaic or rare pluralization of 'doleful' when nominalized. The noun form is uncommon in modern English, surviving mainly in historical or literary texts.
This word is so rare that most dictionaries don't include it—it's a ghost word that linguists spot in Medieval manuscripts but almost never hear spoken, making it a time capsule of how English grammar once worked.
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