miserable
In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.
Adjective
- In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.
- Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of...
- With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable...
- The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation - 1910, George Bernard Shaw, A Treatise on Parents...
Synonyms: atrabiliary atrabilious blitheless dispirited blue bummed out chapfallen cheerless chopfallen crestfallen cut up damp dejected depressed despondent disgruntled disconsolate disheartened dismal doleful dolesome down down in the dumps down in the mouth
- Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless.
- He's good at some sports, like tennis, but he's just miserable at football.
Synonyms: amateurish backwards bad bungling clumsy ham-fisted ham-handed inapt incapable incompetent ineffective inept inexpert maladroit miserable noob unable unprofessional unqualified unskillful
- Of the weather, extremely unpleasant due to being cold, wet, overcast, etc.
Synonyms: cheerless comfortless bleak dark morose depressing desolate dire disconsolate dismal doleful dolesome drear drearisome dreary dreich forlorn gayless gray gloomsome gloomy grim joyless lack-laughter
- Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible.
- a miserable sinner
- In a month's collecting at Wonosalem and Djapannan I accumulated ninety-eight species of birds, but a most miserable lot of insects. - 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and...
Synonyms: abject filthy base beggarly blameworthy carrion cheap choical contemptible cringing damnable dedecorous degraded deplorable deridable derisible despicable despisable dirty discreditable disdainable disgraceful dishonorable disreputable
- Causing unhappiness or misery.
- For what's more miserable than discontent? - c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
Synonyms: atrabiliary atrabilious deplorable depressing distressing grievous heartbreaking heartrending miserable lamentable lachrymable mournful regrettable rueful sad saddening sorrowful tragic unhappy upsetting woebegone woeful
- Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.
- the liberal-hearted man is by the opinion of the prodigal miserable, and by the judgment of the miserable lavish - [1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London:...
Synonyms: as tight as Dick's hatband cheap cheeseparing chintzy close close as wax close-fisted illiberal mean miserable miserly narrow-fisted niggardly nipcheese parsimonious peddling penny-wise penny-pinching penurious scrooge-like scrubby shabby still got one's communion money stingy
- Negative minded, unpleasant to be around.
Origin
Borrowed from Middle French miserable, from Old French, from Latin miserabilis, equivalent to miser + -able.
Forms
Related
Derived
immiseration immiserization mimsy miserabilism miserabilist miserability miserable as a wet hen miserableness miserablism miserablist miserably unmiserable
Noun
- A miserable person; a wretch.
- Dona Carmen repaired to the balcony to chat and jest with, and at, these miserables, who stopped before the door to rest in their progress. All pretended poverty while literally groaning under the weight of their...
- The charge that those who played Jesus in these representations were treated badly by the plays' Jews and Romans left one commissioner cold: in his view, these miserables were beaten much less severely by the players...
- A state of misery or melancholy.
- By 3:00 P.M. both DeeDee and Sandra's pants were thoroughly soaked, and this unhappy circumstance gave DeeDee a bad case of the miserables. - 1984, Barbara Wernecke Durkin, Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can't You Dance the...