Adjacent Words

miserable definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: very unhappy; full of misery; "he felt depressed and miserable"; "a message of hope for suffering humanity"; "wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages" [syn: miserable, suffering, wretched]
2: 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"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn: hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, wretched]
3: of the most contemptible kind; "abject cowardice"; "a low stunt to pull"; "a low-down sneak"; "his miserable treatment of his family"; "You miserable skunk!"; "a scummy rabble"; "a scurvy trick" [syn: abject, low, low-down, miserable, scummy, scurvy]
4: of very poor quality or condition; "deplorable housing conditions in the inner city"; "woeful treatment of the accused"; "woeful errors of judgment" [syn: deplorable, execrable, miserable, woeful, wretched]
5: characterized by physical misery; "a wet miserable weekend"; "spent a wretched night on the floor" [syn: miserable, wretched]
6: contemptibly small in amount; "a measly tip"; "the company donated a miserable $100 for flood relief"; "a paltry wage"; "almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans" [syn: measly, miserable, paltry]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin miserabilis wretched, pitiable, from miserari to pity, from miser Date: 15th century 1. being in a pitiable state of distress or unhappiness (as from want or shame) <miserable refugees> 2. a. wretchedly inadequate or meager <a miserable hovel> b. causing extreme discomfort or unhappiness <a miserable situation> 3. being likely to discredit or shame <his miserable neglect of his wife> <it was miserable of you to make fun of him> • miserable noun • miserableness noun • miserably adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 wretchedly unhappy or uncomfortable (felt miserable; a miserable hovel). 2 contemptible, mean. 3 causing wretchedness or discomfort (miserable weather). 4 Sc., Austral., & NZ stingy, mean. Derivatives: miserableness n. miserably adv. Etymology: ME f. F misérable f. L miserabilis pitiable f. miserari to pity f. miser wretched

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Miserable Mis"er*a*ble, a. [F. mis['e]rable, L. miserabilis, fr. miserari to lament, pity, fr. miser wretched. See Miser.] 1. Very unhappy; wretched. What hopes delude thee, miserable man? --Dryden. 2. Causing unhappiness or misery. What 's more miserable than discontent? --Shak. 3. Worthless; mean; despicable; as, a miserable fellow; a miserable dinner. Miserable comforters are ye all. --Job xvi. 2. 4. Avaricious; niggardly; miserly. [Obs.] --Hooker. Syn: Abject; forlorn; pitiable; wretched.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Miserable Mis"er*a*ble, n. A miserable person. [Obs.] --Sterne.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you are miserable, you are very unhappy. I took a series of badly paid secretarial jobs which made me really miserable... ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • miserably He looked miserably down at his plate. ADV: usu ADV after v 2. If you describe a place or situation as miserable, you mean that it makes you feel unhappy or depressed. There was nothing at all in this miserable place to distract him. = depressing ADJ: usu ADJ n 3. If you describe the weather as miserable, you mean that it makes you feel depressed, because it is raining or dull. It was a grey, wet, miserable day... ADJ 4. If you describe someone as miserable, you mean that you do not like them because they are bad-tempered or unfriendly. He always was a miserable man. He never spoke to me nor anybody else. ADJ: ADJ n 5. You can describe a quantity or quality as miserable when you think that it is much smaller or worse than it ought to be. Our speed over the ground was a miserable 2.2 knots... ADJ: usu a ADJ amount [emphasis] • miserably ...the miserably inadequate supply of books now provided for schools. ADV: ADV adj 6. A miserable failure is a very great one. The film was a miserable commercial failure both in Italy and in the United States. ADJ: ADJ n [emphasis] • miserably Some manage it. Some fail miserably. ADV: ADV with v

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Unhappy (as respects the condition of the mind), wretched, distressed, afflicted, comfortless, disconsolate, forlorn, broken-hearted, heart-broken. 2. Wretched, pitiable, calamitous, unfortunate, unlucky, ill-starred, unhappy, hapless. 3. Worthless, valueless, very poor (in quality). 4. Low, mean, abject, despicable, contemptible, worthless.

Moby Thesaurus

abject, abominable, adverse, afflicted, antagonistic, arrant, atrocious, awful, bad, base, beggarly, beneath contempt, cheap, cheerless, cheesy, common, conflicting, contemptible, contrary, counter, counteractive, crummy, crushed, cut up, debased, deep-troubled, degraded, dejected, deplorable, depraved, depressed, desolate, despairing, desperate, despicable, despondent, detrimental, difficult, dirty, disconsolate, discontented, disgraceful, disgusting, dismal, doleful, dolorous, downhearted, execrable, flagrant, forlorn, foul, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky, gloomy, glum, grave, grim, gross, hard, harmful, heart-stricken, heart-struck, heartbroken, heartsick, heinous, hopeless, hostile, humorless, in bad humor, in opposition, inadequate, inclement, inconvenient, infestive, inimical, joyless, lachrymose, lamentable, little, lousy, low, low-down, low-spirited, lumpen, mangy, mean, measly, melancholy, meretricious, mirthless, monstrous, mournful, nefarious, not easy, obnoxious, odious, opposed, opposing, opposite, out of humor, out of sorts, paltry, pathetic, petty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, pleasureless, poky, poor, rank, reptilian, rigorous, rotten, rubbishy, rueful, ruthful, sad, scabby, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, shabby, shameful, shoddy, sinister, small, sorrowful, sorry, sorryish, squalid, stressful, stricken, suicidal, tearful, terrible, trashy, troublesome, troublous, trumpery, trying, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, uncheerful, uncheery, unfavorable, unhappy, unjoyful, unmentionable, unmirthful, unpleasant, unsmiling, untoward, unworthy, valueless, vile, woebegone, woeful, worthless, wretched