Wretched

Definition: Wretched

Wretched

Adjective

1. Of very poor quality or condition; "deplorable housing conditions in the inner city"; "woeful treatment of the accused"; "woeful errors of judgment".

2. Characterized by physical misery; "a wet miserable weekend"; "spent a wretched night on the floor".

3. Very unhappy; full of misery; "he felt depressed and miserable"; "a message of hope for suffering humanity"; "wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages".

4. Deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "couldn't rescue the poor fellow"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "wretched" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1200. (references)

Multilingual Slang

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Wretched

Inexpedience

Vile, base, villainous; mean; (paltry); injured; deteriorated; unsatisfactory, exceptionable indifferent; below par; (imperfect); illcontrived, ill-conditioned; wretched, sad, grievous, deplorable, lamentable; pitiful, pitiable, woeful; (painful).

Pain

Unhappy, infelicitous, poor, wretched, miserable, woe-begone; cheerless; (dejected); careworn.

Unimportance

Poor, paltry, pitiful; contemptible; (contempt); sorry, mean, meager, shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, scrannel, weedy, scurvy, putid, beggarly, worthless, twopennyhalfpenny, cheap, trashy, catchpenny, gimcrack, trumpery; one-horse. not worth the pains, not worth while, not worth mentioning, not worth speaking of, not worth a thought, not worth a curse, not worth a straw; Noun: beneath notice, unworthy of notice, beneath regard, unworthy of regard, beneath consideration, unworthy of consideration; de lana caprina; vain; (useless).

Crosswords: Wretched

I'll take care of the squealing, wretched, pinhead puppets of Gotham (Batman Returns; writing credit: Bob Kane; Daniel Waters)

Always that wretched little spark (I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream; writing credit: Harlan Ellison;)

You wretched reptiles (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cufflink Caper; writing credit: Kevin Eastman; Peter Laird)

Young man, that woman's acting would be wretched in a porno film (Urban Legends: Final Cut; writing credit: Paul Harris Boardman)

Cunning, swift wretched humans, they're afraid of you (Zaat; writing credit: Ron Kivett; Lee O. Larew)

IN THE WRETCHED LIFE OF A LONELY HEART (BACK ON THE CHAIN GANG; performing artist: The Pretenders)

Your daddy's in the gutter with the wretched and the poor (Happy Birthday; performing artist: Weird Al Yankovic)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Delight for a Wretched Man (reference)

• The Worst of the Wretched Mess News (reference)

• The wretched of Canada; letters to R. B. Bennett, 1930-1935 (reference)

• The Wretched of the Earth (reference)

• The Wretched Stone (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• Happy Wretched Family (reference)

• Voice of the Wretched (reference)

• Wretched Refuse String Band (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

To turn him loose to an unrestrained liberty, before he has reason to guide him, is not the allowing him the privilege of his nature to be free; but to thrust him out amongst brutes, and abandon him to a state as wretched, and as much beneath that of a man, as their's. (Second Treatise of Government)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

No, if he had believed me at all to share his feelings, he would not have been so wretched.

Here, then, the wretched man whose name he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground

Under that impulse, she had made her choice, and had chosen, as it now appeared, the more wretched alternative of the two.

To break all links seems to be the instinct of some wretched families

You cannot know where that wretched habit will lead you or where it will come against you.

Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expressions using "wretched": die a wretched death ♦ drag out a wretched existence ♦ feel wretched ♦ wretched house ♦ wretched inn ♦ wretched nag ♦ wretched poet ♦ wretched weather. Additional references.

Afrikaans

beroerd (abject, bad, dismal, meager, miserable, nasty, poor). (various references)

Albanian

i vrarë në shpirt, i varfër (bad, beggarly, destitute, fortuneless, impecunious, indigent, lame, lazarus, low-lived, meager, meagre, mean, miserable, one horse, penurious, poor, spare, squalid), i përçmuar (despicable, pathetic, pathetical, wormy), i mjeruar (deplorable, unfortunate), i lëshuar (abandoned, flabby, flaccid, flagging, floppy, funky, lackadaisical, languid, languishing, lax, licentious, limp, loose, nerveless, pendulous, profligate, slack, slatternly, slipshod, weary), fatkeq (calamitous, fortuneless, hapless, ill fated, ill-omened, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, washout). (various references)

Arabic 

‏مدقع (miserable), ‏هزيل (exiguous, gaunt, haggard, lean, meager, meagre, miserable, peak, peaky, pitiful, scanty, scrawny, short, sickly, sketchy, skimp, skimpy, skinny, slender, slight, slim, spare, sparing, stingy, watery), ‏حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless), ‏تعيس (miserable, poor thing, unfortunate, unhappy), ‏ضئيل (bantam, exiguous, fractional, imperceptible, insignificant, little, lowbrow, meager, meagre, nominal, piddling, puny, sketchy, slender, sparse, stingy, thin), ‏رهيب (bloodcurdling, bloody, chilly, dire, dreadful, fearful, fierce, grisly, gruesome, hairy, holy, horrible, horrific, lurid, macabre, monstrous, morbid, nightmarish, redoubtable, smashing, super, terrible), ‏ردئ النوع (cheap, flimsy, leaden, shabby), ‏شقي (brat, evil doer, rogue, unhappy, yob), ‏بائس (afflicted, cheerless, deplorable, desolate, devil, disconsolate, distressed, forlorn, godforsaken, hapless, heel, helpless, lamentable, measly, miserable, paltry, pathetic, penurious, piteous, pitiful, poor, poverty stricken, ratty, sad, scruffy, seedy, sickly, sordid, squalid, unfortunate, unhappy, woeful). (various references)

Bulgarian 

ужасен (aghast, appalling, awful, bloodcurdling, deadly, desperate, deuced, devastating, dire, direful, dreadful, eldritch, execrable, fearful, fearsome, frantic, frightful, furious, ghastly, great, grievous, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrid, horror-stricken, lurid, macabre, miserable, morbid, murderous, planet-stricken, planet-struck, precious, sad, septic, terrible, terrific, towering, tremendous, unholy, unmentionable, vicious), окаян (abject, beggarly, deplorable, despicable, forlorn, miserable, reprobate, squalid), нещастен (abject, hapless, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, lack-all, lorn, poor, sick, unblessed, unchancy, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, woeful), невъзможен (bloody minded, impossible, infamous, miserable, monstrous, perishing, pestilent, terrible, unchristian, unfeasible, unthinkable, villainous), мизерен (abject, flea-bitten, mangy, miserable, poverty stricken, ratty, sordid, squalid), злочест (hapless, ill fated, miserable, star-crossed, unfortunate, unhappy, woebegone). (various references)

Chinese 

狽 (a legendary wolf, distressed), 慘 (badly, cruel, inhuman, miserable, seriously, tragic), 佌 (petty, to do, to make, to regard as, to takefor), 孤苦. (various references)

Czech

ubohý (crappy, deplorable, dingy, dismal, down in the mouth, grotty, miserable, paltry, pitiable, poor, sleazy), mizerný (abysmal, bad, bleeding, bum, cheap, crappy, crummy, dismal, foul, lousy, miserable, painful, paltry, rotten, stingy, tinpot, vile), bídný (abject, bad, eagre, low down, mean, miserable, pitiful, scurvy, sordid, squalid), žalostný (deplorable, lamentable, measly, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, regretful, rueful, woeful, woesome). (various references)

Dutch

miserabel (abject, dismal, meager, miserable), ellendig (abject, dismal, meager, miserable, miserably), belabberd (abject, dismal, meager, miserable). (various references)

Esperanto

mizera (abject, dismal, meager, miserable). (various references)

Faeroese

neyðars (abject, dismal, meager, miserable, poor), neyðar (abject, dismal, meager, miserable). (various references)

Farsi 

پست (Abacinate, Abject, Cheap, Common, Currish, Despicable, Earthborn, Humble, Infamous, Inferior, Lily, Little, Mail, Menial, Peevish, Poor, Runty, Ungenerous, Venal, Vile, Villain, Villainous, Vulgar, Wretch), تاسف اور, ضعیف الحال , رنجور (Ill, Infirm, Painful), بیچاره (Desperate, Destitute, Incurable, Wretch), بدبخت (Gray, Infelicitous, Miserable, Sorry, Unblessed, Unblest, Unfortunate, Unhappy, Woeful, Wretch). (various references)

Finnish

viheliäinen (miserable), vaivainen (cripple, invalid, miserable), surkea (deplorable, dismal, lamentable, miserable, pitiful, sad), säälittävä (miserable, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, to be pitied), rähjä (miserable), poloinen (poor, unlucky), kurja (miserable, pitiable, poor), kunnoton (good-for-nothing, worthless), huono (bad, poor, rotten, ugly, wicked). (various references)

French

misérable (wretch). (various references)

Frisian

skiterich (abject, dismal, meager, miserable), heukerich (abject, dismal, meager, miserable, poor), earmoedig (abject, dismal, meager, miserable), earmhertich (abject, dismal, meager, miserable). (various references)

German

elend (abject, awful, calamitous, calamitously, calamitousness, confounded, destitution, dismal, distress, dreadful, hardship, meager, miserable, miserably, misery, penury, pitiable, pitiful, plight, poorly, poverty, sick, sordid, sordidness, squalid, squalor, unhappiness, woeful, woefully, woefulness, wretchedly, wretchedness), jämmerlich (abject, deplorable, despicable, dismal, lamentable, lamentably, meager, miserable, miserably, pathetic, pitiful, pitifully, sorry), erbärmlich (abject, abjectly, depressingly, disgraceful, disgracefully, dismal, hideous, lamentable, lamentably, meager, miserable, miserably, paltrily, paltry, pathetically, piteous, piteously, pitiable, pitiful, pitifully, poor, sordid, squalid, terrible). (various references)

Greek 

πενιχρός (meager, meagre, poor), ελεεινόσ (abject, beggarly, deplorable, disgraceful, forlorn, haggard, miserable, piteous, pitiable, scrub, scrubby, seedy, sorry), ελεεινός (miserable), άθλιοσ (abject, beastly, beggarly, caitiff, forlorn, miserable, putrid, scullion, squalid, unblessed, Unblest, villainous), τρισάθλιοσ. (various references)

Hebrew 

מרו�" (depressed, miserable), מסכן (hapless, miserable, pitiful, poor, poor thing, unfortunate), עלוב (abject, god forsaken, humbled, mean, measly, miserable, pitiful, poor, seamy, worthless), ע� י (impecunious, indigent, miserable, pauper, penurious, poor, poor person), אמול (depressed, unfortunate), אומלל (disconsolate, feeble, hapless, miserable, poor, unfortunate, unhappy), אביון (beggar, destitute, miserable, needy, pauper, poor person), �"ך (crushed, lowly, oppressed, poor), �"ו�" (sad, sick), � בז�" (cad, contemptible, despicable, despised, mean, mean-spirited, measly, nasty, ornery, scamp, shameful, sordid, villain, worm). (various references)

Hungarian

szerencsétlen (calamitous, catastrophic, disastrous, fey, hapless, ill fated, ill-starred, luckless, misadventurous, miserable, sad, star-crossed, stiff, to sink money in an unfortunate undertaking, unchancy, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward, woeful, woesome), nyomorult (abject, bally, blankety-blank, bum, damned, godforsaken, jay, miserable, pimping, slave, wretch), nyamvadt (cheesy, frigging, punk, ratty, ruddy), boldogtalan (hapless, infelicitous, miserable, unhappy). (various references)

Italian

povero (abject, arm, bare, beggarly, dismal, indigent, meager, meagre, miserable, needy, poor, poor man, unfortunate), misero (abject, dismal, forlorn, meager, mean, miserable, narrow, poor, poverty stricken, scanty, spare, squalid, unfortunate), miserabile (abject, despicable, dismal, meager, mean, measly, miserable, misery, poor, poverty stricken, sorry, unhappiness, wretch, wretchedness). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

嘆かわしい (deplorable, sad). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

な�'かわしい (deplorable, sad), ひさ�" (arsenic acid, disaster, dispersal, flying, misery, pitiful, scattering, tragedy), さ�"た�" (admiration, extollment, horrible, pitiful, praise, repeatedly crying, tragic), かすか (dim, faint, hazy, indistinct, poor, weak), わびしい (comfortless, dreary, lonely, miserable, shabby), あさましい (abject, despicable, mean, miserable, shameful), あじきない (insipid, irksome, vain, wearisome), あじけない (insipid, irksome, vain, wearisome), みじめ (miserable, pitiful, sad). (various references)

Korean 

비참한 (Abject, Disastrous, miserable). (various references)

Manx

treih (abject, deplorable, doughy, drawn, feeble, forlorn, fragile, haggard, miserable, pale, pale-faced, pallid, pasty, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, regrettable, rueful, sallow, seedy, sickly, wan, wretched of thing), moal (backward, belated, decrepit, deliberate, deplorable, dim, disappointing, dull, enfeebled, feeble, flimsy, gradual, ill, laggard, late, late of fruit, listless, meagre, overdue, pithless, poor, poorly, scraggy, slack, slow, sorry, tardy, tawdry, unimpressive, weak, weak as faith, wretched of thing), dreihagh (wretched of person), donnanagh (doltish, duncelike, wretched of person). (various references)

Papiamen

miserabel (abject, dismal, meager, miserable). (various references)

Pig Latin

etchedwray.(various references)

Portuguese

miserável (abject, costive, dismal, evil, godforsaken, logy, meager, misbegotten, miscreant, miserable, miserly, paltry, picayune, pimping, poky, poor, rascally, scaly, scoundrel, scurvy, skinflint, sordid, squalid, wretch). (various references)

Romanian

nevoiaş (destitute, indigent, low-lived, needy, out at elbows, penniless), chinuit (agitated, overdone, over-elaborate, uneasy, unfortunate, worried), infect (foul, rotten, stinking, vile), jalnic (beggarly, deplorable, distressing, doleful, forlorn, heart rending, lamentable, lamentably, lamenting, mangy, mean, miserable, miserably, mournful, pathetic, pathetically, piteous, pitiable, plaintive, rueful, ruefully, sad, sorrowful, sorry, squalid, woeful), lamentabil (godforsaken, lamentable, lamentably, lamenting, rotten, woeful), mizerabil (abject, despicable, dirty, godforsaken, grovelling, miserable, miserably, pitiable, unlucky, villainous, wretch), nefericit (ill fated, infelicitous, miserable, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, wretch), calicesc (beggarly, miserable, poor), nenorocit (abject, baleful, disastrous, forlorn, grievous, grub, hapless, lame duck, mean, measly, miser, miserable, pilgarlic, rascal, rotten, sad, scullion, unfortunate, unhappy, wretch), ticãlos (a bad egg, base, cad, canting, cur, dark, dirty, felon, foul, heel, hound, impious, kite, knave, knavish, knavishly, low-minded, mean, meanly, miscreant, paltry, perverse, picaroon, rapscallion, rascal, rascally, recreant, reprobate, ruffian, scab, scabby, scamp, scoundrel, scurvy, serpentine, shabby, skunk, sneak, sneaking, vile, villain, villainous, wretch), pârlit (adust, pauper), prãpãdit (destroyed, deteriorated, gaunt, rascal, wretch), prost (ass, bad, badly, beef-witted, blinkard, blockhead, blunt, booby, calf, cheap, clumsy, cock eyed, common, dead, dolt, doltish, donkey, dull, dullard, dumb, dunce, dunderhead, flat, fool, foolish, good for nothing, goof, goon, goose, Goosey, gull, harmful, idiot, idiotish, inhospitable, lousy, lubber-head, miserable, nincompoop, ninny, nitwit, nitwitted, noddy, noodle, numskull, numskulled, oaf, oafish, pin head, poor, poorly, silly, simple, simpleton, snipe, soft, soft-headed, sorry, spoony, stupid, thoughtless, unfavorable, unfavourable, zombie), rãu (Amiss, atrocious, awkward, awry, bad, bad for, bad-hearted, badly, baleful, black, bum, corrupt, depraved, evil, flagitious, foul, haggish, harm, ill, immoral, lousy, malefic, maleficent, malicious, malign, mischief, mischievous, miserable, naughty, perverse, rough, scoundrel, sickness, thin, unspeakable, useless, venomous, vicious, vile, wicked, wrong), regretabil (deplorable, grievous, lamentable, lamenting, regrettable, sad, unfortunate, unhappy), sãrman (indigent, pauper, poor, poor devil), ticãit (tick, ticking), nemernic (base, cad, caitiff, felon, foul, rascal, rascally, reprobate, scamp, scoundrel, sneak, sneaking, son of a gun, villain, wretch). (various references)

Russian 

жалкий (abject, forlorn, paltry, pathetic, pimping, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, scrubby, woeful). (various references)

Scottish

truagh (I pity, miserable, unhappy : is truagh leam). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

jadan (deplorable, jejune, lamentable, miserable, pelting, piteous, pitiable, poor), bedan (abject, beggarly, crummy, distressful, lamentable, mangy, miserable, needy, pelting, pitiable, poor, rubbishy, squalid). (various references)

Spanish

miserable (abject, beggarly, dismal, meager, measly, miserable, moldy, mouldy, paltry, poor, sordid, squalid, twopenny), pobre (abject, beggar, destitute, dismal, hungry, impecunious, indigent, jimp, meager, meagre, mingy, miserable, miserly, needy, pathetic, pathetical, pauper, penurious, poor, scrappy), necesitado (abject, dismal, in need, meager, miserable, necessitous, needy, poor, taken, underprivileged), menesteroso (abject, dismal, meager, miserable, needy, poverty stricken, underprivileged). (various references)

Swedish

usel (abject, abysmal, bad, base, bum, cheesy, dastardly, execrable, ignoble, low, mean, miserable, paltry, pitiful, poor, shoddy, tacky, trashy, vile, worthless), olycklig (afflicted, distressed, fortuneless, hapless, ill fated, ill-starred, infelicitous, luckless, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, untoward), miserabel. (various references)

Turkish

zavallı (nebbish, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, poor thing, poverty stricken, sorry), sefil (abject, beggarly, dead end, destitute, down and out, down at heels, hangdog, miserable, poor, poverty stricken, rep, ropy, shabby, sordid, squalid, starveling, wretch), perişan (confused, dead beat, dead end, desolate, distraught, down and out, down at heels, forlorn, hangdog, out at elbows, poor, prostrate, ruinous, run down, scattered, seedy, shoestring, up the spout), bitkin (all in, all out, beat, broken down, bushed, dead beat, dog tired, drained, drawn, drawn out, drooping, effete, exhausted, faint, forworn, haggard, jaded, knackered, languorous, overdone, played out, pooped, pooped out, prostrate, run down, spent, stale, tired, tired to death, toilworn, tuckered out, used up, washed out, weakly, weary, whacked, wonky, worn, worn out, worn to a frazzle, zonked), biçare (helpless, shiftless), berbat (abominable, abysmal, accursed, accurst, appalling, atrocious, awful, bad, badly, beastly, bum, chronic, crappy, dashed, destroyed, deuced, devilish, disgusting, dread, dreadfull, egregious, execrable, fierce, flagitious, frightful, ghastly, grotty, hell, hell of, helluva, horrible, horrid, indifferent, infamous, infernal, ropy, rotten, screwed, shocking, sickening, spoilt, sticky, stinking, terrible, ungodly, unsavory, unsavoury, vicious, vile, villainous, violent), acınacak halde (deplorable, pathetically, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, sorry). (various references)

Ukrainian

убогий (bald, bare, gimp, jimp, pokey, poking, poky, poverty stricken, poverty-struck, scant, scanty, scraggy, skimp, starveling, stingy), нещасний (abject, disastrous, poor, sinister, unfortunate), мерзенний (abhorrent, abject, abominable, atrocious, caitiff, ghoulish, hangdog, hateful, heinous, nasty, nefandous, nefarious, niddering, odious, sordid, villainous), жахливий (abominable, abysmal, almighty, appalling, atrocious, awesome, awful, blinking, blood-curdling, blue, chronic, damnable, damned, deadly, desperate, deuced, devilish, dire, direful, dreadful, eerie, eery, eldritch, enormous, fearful, fearsome, ferocious, flagrant, frightening, frightful, grievous, gruesome, horrible, horrific, iniquitous, macabre, monstrous, plaguy, scarey, scary, towering, tragic, tremendous, ungodly), жалюгідний (abject, beggarly, caitiff, contemptible, deplorable, forlorn, impoverished, lamentable, mean, miserable, parsimonious, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, queachy, snide, sorry, tatty, woeful, woesome), противний (abominable, obnoxious, offensive, unsavoury). (various references)

Vietnamese 

t�"i (deplorable, doggerel, foul, illy, poor, poorly, punk, rotten, third-rate, threepenny, trashy), quá tệ, khốn khổ (miserable, small), cùng khổ; bất hạnh xấu, đáng chê thảm hại. (various references)

Welsh

truenus (miserable), truan (miserable, poor, wretch), gresynus (miserable), anwych (base), aele (sad). (various references)

aerumnosus, damnatorum, damnatus, infelices, infelix, misellus, miser, misera, miserabiles, miserabili, miserabiliores, miserabilis, miseram, miseri, miseris, misero, miseros, miserrima. (various references)

earm, earmcearig, earmsceapen, feasceafig, hean. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations

Words beginning with "wretched": wretcheder, wretchedest, wretchedly, wretchedness, wretchednesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Wretched" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: dretched, wetched, wreached, wreched. (additional references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: retched.

-2 letters: cheder, chewed, chewer, crewed, etched, etcher, rechew, teched, wether, wretch.

-3 letters: ceder, cered, cheer, chert, creed, crwth, deter, eched, erect, ether, heder, hewed, hewer, retch, rewed, rewet, terce, tewed, there, three, threw, treed, tweed, wecht, where.

-4 letters: cede, cere, cete, chew, crew, deer, deet, dere, dree, drew, eche, etch, ewer, heed, herd.

+2 letters: wretcheder, wretchedly.

+3 letters: cartwheeled, wretchedest.

+4 letters: wretchedness.

+5 letters: thenceforward.