Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. An unhappy state of mental or physical suffering.
- n. A state of prolonged misfortune, privation, or anguish.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- n. The quality or state of being wretched; utter misery.
- n. A wretched object; anything despicably.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state or condition of a suffering wretch; a wretched or distressful state of being; great misery or affliction.
- n. Wretched character or quality; distressing, reprehensible, or despicable nature; aggravated or aggravating badness of any kind.
- n. That which is wretched or distressingly bad; wretched material, conduct, or the like; anything contemptible or despicable; wretched stuff.
- n. =Syn.1. Affliction, Grief, Sorrow, etc. See affliction.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. the quality of being poor and inferior and sorry
- n. a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune
- n. the character of being uncomfortable and unpleasant
Etymologies
Examples
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Cursed, cursed be the fiend that brought misery on his grey hairs, and doomed him to waste in wretchedness!
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They try so hard to please their parents and even harder to understand them, and their resulting wretchedness is one of the most haunting subplots of the novel.
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What was it specially that he called wretchedness?
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I shall not close this, till I have seen or heard from the vile miscreant who has involved a worthy family in wretchedness!
The Coquette, or, The History of Eliza Wharton: A Novel Founded on Fact
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It is of course self-evident that poverty should not degenerate into wretchedness, which is no less an abundant source of moral dangers than is excessive wealth.
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How many old labourers, old operatives, or miners are now left to recall the wretchedness of that toiling and starving childhood before the corn-tax was removed?
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By such an estimate, nearly the whole number are accounted for by wretchedness, that is by economic causes, alone
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 6 Sex in Relation to Society
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My first knowledge of their wretchedness was a thing which sank deep.
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Nor will their wretchedness, which is the work of their own hands, disturb our peace or mar our happiness.
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Alas! alas! that in all my misery the only woman who sympathises with my wretchedness is the woman I have injured.
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