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Webster 1913 Edition

Wretch

Wretch

,
Noun.
[OE.
wrecche
, AS.
wrecca
,
wræcca
, an exile, a wretch, fr.
wrecan
to drive out, punish; properly, an exile, one driven out, akin to AS.
wræc
an exile, OS.
wrekkio
a stranger, OHG.
reccheo
an exile. See
Wreak
,
Verb.
T.
]
1.
A miserable person; one profoundly unhappy.
“The wretch that lies in woe.”
Shak.
Hovered thy spirit o’er thy sorrowing son,
Wretch
even then, life's journey just begun?
Cowper.
2.
One sunk in vice or degradation; a base, despicable person; a vile knave;
as, a profligate
wretch
.
☞ Wretch is sometimes used by way of slight or ironical pity or contempt, and sometimes to express tenderness; as we say, poor thing. “Poor wretch was never frighted so.”
Drayton.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wretch

WRETCH

,
Noun.
1.
A miserable person; one sunk in the deepest distress; as a forlorn wretch.
2.
A worthless mortal; as a contemptible wretch.
3.
A person sunk in vice; as a profligate wretch.
4.
It is sometimes used by way of slight or ironical pity or contempt.
Poor wretch was never frighted so.
5.
It is sometimes used to express tenderness; as we say, poor thing.

Definition 2024

wretch

wretch

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɹɛtʃ/
  • Rhymes: -ɛtʃ
  • Homophone: retch

Noun

wretch ‎(plural wretches)

  1. An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.
    • 1742, Henry Fielding, chapter 12, in Joseph Andrews:
      The poor wretch, who lay motionless a long time, just began to recover his senses as a stage-coach came by.
    • 1789, Watkin Tench, chapter 14, in The Expedition to Botany Bay:
      The four unhappy wretches labouring under sentence of banishment were freed from their fetters, to rejoin their former society; and three days given as holidays to every convict in the colony.
  2. An unpleasant, annoying person.
    • 1740, Samuel Richardson, chapter 71, in Pamela:
      Swear to me but, thou bold wretch! said she, swear to me, that Pamela Andrews is really and truly thy lawful wife, without sham, without deceit, without double-meaning; and I know what I have to say!
    • 1823, Walter Scott, chapter 32, in Saint Ronan's Well:
      I asked that selfish wretch, Winterblossom, to walk down with me to view her distress, and the heartless beast told me he was afraid of infection!
  3. (archaic) An exile. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Translations

Etymology 2

Verb

wretch ‎(third-person singular simple present wretches, present participle wretching, simple past and past participle wretched)

  1. Misspelling of retch.

Etymology

From Middle English wrecche, from Old English wreċċa ‎(“exile; outcast”), from Proto-Germanic *wrakjô.

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