Something between a sob and a siren, it is how Lamby expresses a doleful emotion that he experiences roughly twice a day.

NEWYORKER: A Box of Puppies

This is doleful news: a recent study of people who had both lost weight and stayed slim found that exercise was the key to their success.

ECONOMIST: That other national expansion

We also have a bit of a tendency towards doleful solipsism.

FORBES: Do Irish Immigrants to the Bay Area Feel Guilty for Living in Such an Amazing Place?

Here she describes what drove the British and the Americans in 2007 to try to bring back Benazir Bhutto, a manoeuvre that showed beyond all doubt the depth of Pakistan's doleful rentier status.

ECONOMIST: The forces of destiny