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Webster 1913 Edition

Wretched

Wretch′ed

,
Adj.
1.
Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting.
“To what wretched state reserved!”
Milton.
O cruel! Death! to those you are more kind
Than to the
wretched
mortals left behind.
Waller.
The
wretched
refuse of your teeming shore . . . –>
2.
Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable;
as, a
wretched
poem; a
wretched
cabin
.
3.
Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.
[Obs.]
“Wretched ungratefulness.”
Sir P. Sidney.
Nero reigned after this Claudius, of all men
wretchedest
, ready to all manner [of] vices.
Capgrave.

Webster 1828 Edition

Wretched

WRETCHED

,
Adj.
1.
Very miserable; sunk into deep affliction or distress, either from want, anxiety or grief.
The wretched find no friends.
2.
Calamitous; very afflicting; as the wretched condition of slaves in Algiers.
3.
Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; as a wretched poem; a wretched cabin.
4.
Despicable; hatefully vile and contemptible. He was guilty of wretched ingratitude.

Definition 2024

wretched

wretched

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɹɛtʃɪd/

Adjective

wretched ‎(comparative wretcheder or more wretched, superlative wretchedest or most wretched)

  1. Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting.
    • 1918, Maksim Gorky, chapter 4, in Creatures That Once Were Men, and other stories:
      As for me, I felt wretched and helpless, in the darkness, surrounded with angry waves, whose noise deafened me.
  2. Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable.
    • 1864, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter 1, in Notes from Underground:
      My room is a wretched, horrid one in the outskirts of the town.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 17, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.
    • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, Episode 16
      All those wretched quarrels, in his humble opinion, stirring up bad blood, from some bump of combativeness or gland of some kind, erroneously supposed to be about a punctilio of honour and a flag, […] .
    • 2011 April 11, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 3-0 Man City”, in BBC Sport:
      Mario Balotelli replaced Tevez but his contribution was so negligible that he suffered the indignity of being substituted himself as time ran out, a development that encapsulated a wretched 90 minutes for City and boss Roberto Mancini.
    Jan Hollar authored many wretched poems.   Jan Hollar lived in a wretched cabin.‎
  3. (obsolete) Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.
Usage notes
  • Nouns to which "wretched" is often applied: woman, state, life, condition, creature, man, excess, person, place, world, being, situation, weather, slave, animal, city, village, health, house, town.
Quotations
  • To what wretched state reserved! Milton
  • Wretched ungratefulness. Sir Philip Sidney
  • Wrechet World King Lear
Synonyms
  • See also Wikisaurus:unhappy
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
External links
  • wretched in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • wretched in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɹɛtʃt/

Verb

wretched

  1. Misspelling of retched.

Etymology

From Middle English, as if from wretch + -ed.

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