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MISERABLE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Contemptibly small in amount
Example:
almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
meager; meagerly; meagre; scrimpy; stingy (deficient in amount or quality or extent)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Characterized by physical misery
Example:
spent a wretched night on the floor
Synonyms:
miserable; wretched
Classified under:
Similar:
uncomfortable (providing or experiencing physical discomfort)
Derivation:
miserableness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Of the most contemptible kind
Example:
a scurvy trick
Synonyms:
abject; low; low-down; miserable; scummy; scurvy
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
contemptible (deserving of contempt or scorn)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Deserving or inciting pity
Example:
a wretched life
Synonyms:
hapless; miserable; misfortunate; pathetic; piteous; pitiable; pitiful; poor; wretched
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Derivation:
miserableness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Very unhappy; full of misery
Example:
wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages
Synonyms:
miserable; suffering; wretched
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unhappy (experiencing or marked by or causing sadness or sorrow or discontent)
Derivation:
miserableness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Of very poor quality or condition
Example:
woeful errors of judgment
Synonyms:
deplorable; execrable; miserable; woeful; wretched
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
inferior (of low or inferior quality)
Derivation:
miserableness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Context examples:
“If you could step downstairs with us, we may each be able to give some light to the other upon this miserable affair.”
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Or if I escaped these dangers for a day or two, what could I expect but a miserable death of cold and hunger?
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Miserable as he was on the steamer, a new misery came upon him.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
And don’t you think your miserable life worth the price?
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Of this I am sure: the sun rises to-day on no more miserable house in all the great round of its daily course.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) Check Yes or No if the adjective applies to your pain; miserable.
(BPI - Miserable, NCI Thesaurus)
At the end of this day they made a bleak and miserable camp on the shore of Lake Le Barge.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
I was the most miserable wretch!
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
She was feeling, thinking, trembling about everything; agitated, happy, miserable, infinitely obliged, absolutely angry.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I cannot bear the thoughts of making him so miserable, as I know the very mention of such a thing would do.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
