wretched

[rech-id] /ˈrɛtʃ ɪd/

adjective, wretcheder, wretchedest.

very unfortunate in condition or circumstances; miserable; pitiable.

characterized by or attended with misery and sorrow.

despicable, contemptible, or mean:

a wretched miser.

poor, sorry, or pitiful; worthless:

a wretched job of sewing.

Origin

1150-1200; Middle English wrecchede. See wretch, -ed³

Related forms

wretchedly, adverb

wretchedness, noun

unwretched, adjective

Synonyms

1. dejected, distressed, afflicted, woeful, woebegone, forlorn, unhappy. 2. Wretched, miserable, sorry refer to that which is unhappy, afflicted, or distressed. Wretched refers to a condition of extreme affliction or distress, especially as outwardly apparent: wretched hovels. Miserable refers more to the inward feeling of unhappiness or distress: a miserable life. Sorry applies to distressed, often poverty-stricken outward circumstances; but it has connotations of unworthiness, incongruousness, or the like, so that the beholder feels more contempt than pity: in a sorry plight. 3. base, vile.

Examples from the web for wretched

Those of us who are sympathetic to animal issues find it wretched to consider that our dinner might have had emotions.
wretched typing experience on old-school resistive touchscreen.
Taking pity on our wretched appearance, drivers slowed down and threw loaves of bread out of their cars.
Despite their wretched situation, they are forced to work together.
It would have gotten me out of that wretched school a year earlier.
The use of the zero, however, requires us to defend the proposition that abysmal is six times as bad as wretched.
But authority was unflinching, and the wretched cleric was duly and publicly executed.
The characters are wondering why these wretched legions are surrounding the mall, coming back day after day.
Or have anything whatsoever to do with that dreadful, wretched place.
These wretched ballets had a certain negative importance.

British Dictionary definitions for wretched

wretched

/ˈrɛtʃɪd/

adjective

in poor or pitiful circumstances

characterized by or causing misery

despicable; base

poor, inferior, or paltry

(prenominal) (intensifier qualifying something undesirable): a wretched nuisance

Derived Forms

wretchedly, adverb
wretchedness, noun

Word Origin and History for wretched

adj.

c.1200, wrecched, an irregular formation from wrecche "wretch" (see wretch). Cf. also wicked.