wretchedness

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Related to wretchedness: preoccupied, impoverished

wretch·ed

(rĕch′ĭd)

adj. wretch·ed·er, wretch·ed·est

1. In a deplorable state of distress or misfortune; miserable: "the wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages" (George Orwell).

2. Characterized by or attended with misery or woe: a wretched life.

3. Of a poor or mean character; dismal: a wretched building.

4. Contemptible; despicable: wretched treatment of the patients.

5. Of very inferior quality: wretched prose.

[Middle English wrecched, from wrecche, wretch; see wretch.]

wretch′ed·ly adv.

wretch′ed·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Noun	1.	wretchedness - a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune; "the misery and wretchedness of those slums is intolerable" miserableness, misery ill-being - lack of prosperity or happiness or health concentration camp - a situation characterized by crowding and extremely harsh conditions living death - a state of constant misery woe, suffering - misery resulting from affliction
	2.	wretchedness - the character of being uncomfortable and unpleasant; "the wretchedness for which these prisons became known"; "the grey wretchedness of the rain" discomfort, uncomfortableness - the state of being tense and feeling pain
	3.	wretchedness - the quality of being poor and inferior and sorry; "he has compiled a record second to none in its wretchedness" low quality, inferiority - an inferior quality

wretchedness

noun

1. A state of physical or mental suffering:

affliction, agony, anguish, distress, hurt, misery, pain, torment, torture, woe, wound.

2. A state of prolonged anguish and privation:

misery, suffering, woe.

Translations

تَعاسَه، بُؤْس، شَقاء

elendighed

eymd

wretchedness

[ˈretʃɪdnɪs] N

1. (= unhappiness) → desdicha f

2. (= abjectness) [of conditions] → miseria f; [of life, existence] → desgracia f, infelicidad f; (= poverty) → miseria f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

wretchedness

n → Erbärmlichkeit f; (of person: = misery) → Elend nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

wretchedness

[ˈrɛtʃɪdnɪs] n (of life, conditions, pay) → miseria; (unhappiness) → infelicità; (of behaviour, weather) → meschinità

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

wretch

(retʃ) noun

1. a miserable, unhappy creature. The poor wretch!

2. a name used in annoyance or anger. You wretch!

wretched (ˈretʃid) adjective

1. very poor or miserable. They live in a wretched little house.

2. used in annoyance. This wretched machine won't work!

ˈwretchedly adverb

ˈwretchedness noun

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

Mainwaring she gave jealousy and wretchedness to his wife, and by her attentions to a young man previously attached to Mr.

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Poor Huck was in the same state of wretchedness and terror, for Tom had told the whole story to the lawyer the night before the great day of the trial, and Huck was sore afraid that his share in the business might leak out, yet, notwithstanding Injun Joe's flight had saved him the suffering of testifying in court.

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The only hopeless wretchedness in this world is the wretchedness that women cause."

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"I have only wished to prevent you from hurrying us into wretchedness without any necessity," said Rosamond, the tears coming again from a softened feeling now that her husband had softened.

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I sat about in the darkness of the scullery, in a state of despondent wretchedness. My mind ran on eating.

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Like hundreds of thousands of others, I have worked in other fields, striving to organize the mass of mankind into movements for the purpose of ameliorating its own wretchedness and misery.

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On their return home, Tom made use of all his eloquence to display the wretchedness of these people, and the penitence of Black George himself; and in this he succeeded so well, that Mr Allworthy said, he thought the man had suffered enough for what was past; that he would forgive him, and think of some means of providing for him and his family.

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Ex- perience is a keen teacher; and long before you had mastered your A B C, or knew where the "white sails" of the Chesapeake were bound, you began, I see, to gauge the wretchedness of the slave, not by his hunger and want, not by his lashes and toil, but by the cruel and blighting death which gathers over his soul.

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Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept.

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On the 25th of November, 1852, after the death of Overweg, his last companion, he plunged into the west, visited Sockoto, crossed the Niger, and finally reached Timbuctoo, where he had to languish, during eight long months, under vexations inflicted upon him by the sheik, and all kinds of ill-treatment and wretchedness. But the presence of a Christian in the city could not long be tolerated, and the Foullans threatened to besiege it.

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And what made it worse was that there seemed no end to his wretchedness; Singer was only eleven and would not go to the upper school till he was thirteen.

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"And this is how we're preparing wretchedness for Kitty; and she's really got the notion into her head..."