Dirge
//dɜːdʒ// noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A mournful poem or piece of music composed or performed as a memorial to a deceased person.
"Therefore our ſometimes Siſter, now our Queen, / Th’ imperiall Ioyntreſſe of this warlike State, / Haue we, as ’twere, with a defeated ioy, / With one Auſpicious, and one Dropping eye, / With mirth in Funerall, and with Dirge in Marriage, / In equall Scale weighing Delight and Dole / Taken to Wife […]"
- 2 a song or hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person wordnet
- 3 A song or piece of music that is considered too slow, bland or boring. informal
Verb
- 1 To sing dirges
Example
More examples"Fittingly, her last composition was a dirge."
Etymology
From Middle English dirige, from Latin dirige (“steer, direct”), from the beginning of the first antiphon in matins for the dead, Dirige, Domine, deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam. Doublet of dirige.
Related phrases
More for "dirge"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.