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woeful

adj
/ˈwəʊfəl/

Etymology

From Middle English woful, waful, equivalent to woe + -ful. Compare Old English wālīċ (“woeful”), Old English tēonful (“woeful”).

  1. inherited from woful

Definitions

  1. Full of woe

    Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity.

    • How many woeful widows left to bow / To sad disgrace!

  2. Bringing calamity, distress, or affliction.

    • a woeful event
    • a woeful lack of restraint

  3. Lamentable, deplorable.

    • Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in.
  4. ›+ 1 more definition

    1. Wretched

      Wretched; paltry; poor.

      • What woful stuff this madrigal would be / In some starv'd hackney sonneteer or me!

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for woeful. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA