woefully
Americanadverb
-
in a sad or miserable way.
More often than I care to remember, I’ve been stumped for suitable small talk and have ended up staring woefully into my drink.
-
to a particularly regrettable or unfortunate degree.
The treatments prescribed by this psychiatrist are at best woefully inadequate, and at worst, make the patients more disabled than when they started out.
Other Word Forms
- unwoefully adverb
Etymology
Origin of woefully
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.
In their first chase of the tournament, India's batting came up woefully short in the face of some disciplined South Africa bowling.
From Barron's
In genteel phrasing, Ancora also alludes to the fact that Paramount would itself remain woefully undersized if it doesn’t merge with Warner.
Constance Duffle, a paramedic in Siskiyou County at the Oregon border, serves a vast wilderness region woefully in need of health professionals.
From Los Angeles Times
“If crypto jurisdiction is given to the agency, enforcement is woefully understaffed to handle it,” one says.
From Barron's
“If crypto jurisdiction is given to the agency, enforcement is woefully understaffed to handle it,” one says.
From Barron's
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.
