noun
dirge
DURJ/dɜːrdʒ/
A mournful song or expression of grief, especially for someone who has died.
The cellist plays a mournful dirge beside the flower-covered coffin.
Etymology
The command “Direct!” opened a prayer asking God to guide the speaker’s way in the Office for the Dead. That opening word became a name for the sung funeral service, then for any mournful funeral song.
In context
they laid it upon a bed and seated minstrels round it to lead the dirge, whereon the women joined in the sad music of their lament.
More examples
- A lone violin plays a dirge for the fallen soldiers.
- Her poem reads like a dirge for her late husband.
- His speech becomes a dirge for the town's lost way of life.
Forms
dirge · dirges