misery
Americannoun
plural
miseries-
wretchedness of condition or circumstances.
- Synonyms:
- trial, tribulation, suffering
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distress or suffering caused by need, privation, or poverty.
-
great mental or emotional distress; extreme unhappiness.
- Synonyms:
- desolation, torment, woe, anguish, grief
- Antonyms:
- happiness
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a cause or source of distress.
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Older Use.
-
a pain.
a misery in my left side.
-
Often miseries. a case or period of despondency or gloom.
-
noun
-
intense unhappiness, discomfort, or suffering; wretchedness
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a cause of such unhappiness, discomfort, etc
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squalid or poverty-stricken conditions
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informal a person who is habitually depressed
he is such a misery
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dialect a pain or ailment
Related Words
See sorrow.
Etymology
Origin of misery
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English miserie, from Latin miseria, equivalent to miser “wretched” + -ia -y 3
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But tragedy, an exploration of human misery, dates back to the Greeks and expresses agonies as old as our species.
"Every day is the same hunger, the same misery", he says, stirring a pot of white rice – so at the very least his daughter will come home from school to something hot to eat.
From BBC
When he finally spoke, his voice croaked with misery.
From Literature
I figured that the misery would last for only a couple of days and I could put up with anything that long.
From Literature
The penalty was costly and Scotland and Russell took full advantage, with their misery being compounded by the nature of George Turner's match-winning try.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
