| English Dictionary |
MISERABLE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does miserable mean?
• MISERABLE (adjective)
The adjective MISERABLE has 6 senses:
1. very unhappy; full of misery
2. deserving or inciting pity
3. of the most contemptible kind
4. of very poor quality or condition
5. characterized by physical misery
6. contemptibly small in amount
Familiarity information: MISERABLE used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Very unhappy; full of misery
Synonyms:
miserable; suffering; wretched
Context example:
wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages
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 2
Meaning:
Deserving or inciting pity
Synonyms:
hapless; miserable; misfortunate; pathetic; piteous; pitiable; pitiful; poor; wretched
Context example:
a wretched life
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 3
Meaning:
Of the most contemptible kind
Synonyms:
abject; low; low-down; miserable; scummy; scurvy
Context example:
a scurvy trick
Similar:
contemptible (deserving of contempt or scorn)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Of very poor quality or condition
Synonyms:
deplorable; execrable; miserable; woeful; wretched
Context example:
woeful errors of judgment
Similar:
inferior (of low or inferior quality)
Derivation:
miserableness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Characterized by physical misery
Synonyms:
miserable; wretched
Context example:
spent a wretched night on the floor
Similar:
uncomfortable (providing or experiencing physical discomfort)
Derivation:
miserableness (a state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Contemptibly small in amount
Synonyms:
Context example:
almost depleted his miserable store of dried beans
Similar:
meager; meagerly; meagre; scrimpy; stingy (deficient in amount or quality or extent)
Context examples
And do not you fear the fierce vengeance of my arm wreaked on your miserable head?
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
But the greatest effect in these miserable lessons is when my mother (thinking nobody is observing her) tries to give me the cue by the motion of her lips.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
But when I saw you all so well and strong and full of happy plans, it was hard to feel that I could never be like you, and then I was miserable, Jo.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Nonsense! And is it that makes you so miserable?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She has made me miserable forever!
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Bingley was quite uncomfortable; his sisters declared that they were miserable.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
"Because of the lying and very miserable white people," Zilla proclaimed shrilly.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
I notice that when I have the greatest pressure on me, I come down with a miserable cold.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
“Alas! miserable wretch that I am!” cried he.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Now, Mr. Holmes, you know the people who live under my roof, and I shall continue with my miserable story.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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