sorrow

[sor-oh, sawr-oh] /ˈsɒr oʊ, ˈsɔr oʊ/
noun
1.
distress caused by loss, affliction, disappointment, etc.; grief, sadness, or regret.
2.
a cause or occasion of grief or regret, as an affliction, a misfortune, or trouble:
His first sorrow was the bank failure.
3.
the expression of grief, sadness, disappointment, or the like:
muffled sorrow.
verb (used without object)
4.
to feel sorrow; grieve.
Origin
before 900; (noun) Middle English; Old English sorg; cognate with German Sorge, Dutch zorg, Old Norse sorg, Gothic saurga; (v.) Middle English sorwen, Old English sorgian; cognate with Old High German sorgôn
Related forms
sorrower, noun
sorrowless, adjective
unsorrowing, adjective
Synonyms
1. Sorrow, distress, grief, misery, woe imply bitter suffering, especially as caused by loss or misfortune. Sorrow is the most general term. Grief is keen suffering, especially for a particular reason. Distress implies anxiety, anguish, or acute suffering caused by the pressure of trouble or adversity. Misery suggests such great and unremitting pain or wretchedness of body or mind as crushes the spirit. Woe is deep or inconsolable grief or misery. 2. adversity. 4. mourn, lament.
Examples from the web for sorrow
  • Some fervent believers cut their heads with the flat edge of swords to show their grief and sorrow.
  • Get into the experience of when these things happen, when your heart is full of sorrow and sympathy-do it.
  • She left and hanged herself in one of the huts, not out of sorrow but to revenge herself by haunting her disloyal lover.
  • The loss of his journals had caused him even more sorrow than his retirement from the military six years earlier.
  • He told the civil rights leaders to go out into the streets, to meet with people and express their sorrow.
  • People often hear a song and cry, or feel great joy or sorrow.
  • They made you more eloquent in the language of sorrow.
  • And what roils inside him is something darker than sorrow.
  • My sorrow and condolences go to the miners and their families who suffered.
  • Hat in hand one expresses sorrow for not reading a whiff of either argument.
British Dictionary definitions for sorrow

sorrow

/ˈsɒrəʊ/
noun
1.
the characteristic feeling of sadness, grief, or regret associated with loss, bereavement, sympathy for another's suffering, for an injury done, etc
2.
a particular cause or source of regret, grief, etc
3.
Also called sorrowing. the outward expression of grief or sadness
verb
4.
(intransitive) to mourn or grieve
Derived Forms
sorrower, noun
sorrowful, adjective
sorrowfully, adverb
sorrowfulness, noun
Word Origin
Old English sorg; related to Old Norse sorg, Gothic saurga, Old High German sworga
Word Origin and History for sorrow
n.

Old English sorg "grief, regret, trouble, care, pain, anxiety," from Proto-Germanic *sorg- (cf. Old Saxon sorga, Old Norse sorg, Middle Dutch sorghe, Dutch zorg, Old High German soraga, German sorge, Gothic saurga), perhaps from PIE *swergh- "to worry, be sick" (cf. Sanskrit surksati "cares for," Lithuanian sergu "to be sick," Old Church Slavonic sraga "sickness," Old Irish serg "sickness"). Not connected etymologically with sore (adj.) or sorry.

v.

Old English sorgian, from sorg (see sorrow (n.)). Related: Sorrowed; sorrowing. Cf. Dutch zorgen, German sorgen, Gothic saurgan.

Slang definitions & phrases for sorrow

sorrow

Related Terms

drown one's sorrows


Idioms and Phrases with sorrow

sorrow

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