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TRAGIC
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Very sad; especially involving grief or death or destruction
Example:
a tragic accident
Synonyms:
tragic; tragical
Classified under:
Similar:
sad (experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness)
Derivation:
tragedy (an event resulting in great loss and misfortune)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Of or relating to or characteristic of tragedy
Example:
tragic hero
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Domain category:
drama (the literary genre of works intended for the theater)
Pertainym:
tragedy (drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity)
Derivation:
tragedy (drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity)
Context examples:
Sure enough it was a pile of playing-cards—forty packs, I should think, at the least—which had lain there ever since that tragic game which was played before I was born.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Sometimes the isle was thick with savages, with whom we fought, sometimes full of dangerous animals that hunted us, but in all my fancies nothing occurred to me so strange and tragic as our actual adventures.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
On glancing over my notes of the seventy odd cases in which I have during the last eight years studied the methods of my friend Sherlock Holmes, I find many tragic, some comic, a large number merely strange, but none commonplace; for, working as he did rather for the love of his art than for the acquirement of wealth, he refused to associate himself with any investigation which did not tend towards the unusual, and even the fantastic.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I really did not expect any Grace to answer; for the laugh was as tragic, as preternatural a laugh as any I ever heard; and, but that it was high noon, and that no circumstance of ghostliness accompanied the curious cachinnation; but that neither scene nor season favoured fear, I should have been superstitiously afraid.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Mr. Holmes, said the vicar in an agitated voice, the most extraordinary and tragic affair has occurred during the night.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The development for which my friend had asked came in a quicker and an infinitely more tragic form than he could have imagined.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I must congratulate you on coming into the possession, though in rather a tragic manner of a relic which is of great intrinsic value, but of even greater importance as an historical curiosity.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
All about the carriage were gathered the children from a dozen blocks, waiting and eager for some tragic and terrible denouement.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
At my appearance (which was indeed comical enough, however tragic a fate these garments covered) the driver could not conceal his mirth.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
"I've sent for Mother," said Jo, tugging at her rubber boots with a tragic expression.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
