woefully

[ woh-fuh-lee ]

/ ˈwoʊ fə li /

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See synonyms for woefully on Thesaurus.com

Definition of woefully

adverb

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.

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Sometimes wo·ful·ly .

Origin of woefully

woeful + -ly

OTHER WORDS FROM woefully

un·woe·ful·ly, adverb

Words nearby woefully

wodge, Wodzislaw Slaski, woe, woebegone, woeful, woefully, woesome, wof, Woffington, wog, woggle

How to use woefully in a sentence

The team tried to avoid face-to-face contact during the preseason by not tackling or blocking normally and holding all meetings virtually, but it was woefully unprepared in a 55-3 loss to BYU in the season opener.
Navy will host Memphis and Tulsa to make up games postponed by coronavirus issues|Kareem Copeland|November 20, 2020|Washington Post
In 2012, though, Koney’s first attempt at becoming a pineapple farmer “failed woefully,” he says, due to theft, unavailability of fertilizers and the lack of a reliable market for his produce, among other factors.
The Airbnb for Farms Finds Fertile Soil in Ghana|Daniel Malloy|November 18, 2020|Ozy
One need only look at laws and practices for hundreds of years to see how the nation continually struggles to live up to its ideals and promises written so eloquently on paper, yet so woefully unfulfilled in practice.
Is America Finally Having Its Moment of Anagnorisis?|Tracy Moran|November 3, 2020|Ozy
At the beginning of the pandemic the US had woefully small testing capacity.
Science was a big winner—and loser—at this week’s presidential debate|Sara Chodosh|October 23, 2020|Popular-Science

The retirement plan for Our Lady of Fatima, which 2,700 past and current hospital employees were counting on, had been woefully underfunded since 2008.
Investors Extracted $400 Million From a Hospital Chain That Sometimes Couldn’t Pay for Medical Supplies or Gas for Ambulances|by Peter Elkind with Doris Burke|September 30, 2020|ProPublica
The newly free country struggled to maintain order in the wake of independence, but it was woefully unprepared.
The Congo's Forgotten Colonial Getaway|Nina Strochlic|December 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His last words, or so they say, were woefully self-indulgent: “Why me, Johnny Lazia, who has been the friend of everybody?”
Those Kansas City Blues: A Family History|Katie Baker|October 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The penniless Pieret announced his intentions of stealing more art from the woefully guarded Louvre to make more money.
Did Picasso Try to Steal the Mona Lisa?|Nick Mafi|October 23, 2014|DAILY BEAST
That is woefully short of what ISIS needs, and they know it.
It'll Take More Than Bombs to Stop ISIS|Dean Obeidallah|September 2, 2014|DAILY BEAST
We Americans are so woefully unaware when it comes to the history, and the specifics.
Jonathan Demme on Gaza, Transphobia in ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’ and Meryl Streep as a Rock Star|Marlow Stern|July 25, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In 1864 the railway was in a very bad condition, wretchedly run down, and woefully mismanaged.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland|Joseph Tatlow
The bag, too, began to seem woefully full, and her stomach correspondingly empty.
The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch|Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman) Porter
You imagine you have married a creature endowed with reason: you are woefully mistaken, my friend.
The Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete|Honore de Balzac
He knows the British dislike of boasting, and that the American and the Britisher are woefully trusting.
Private Peat|Harold R. Peat
The papers seem to be woefully wrought up over the financial rating of Mr. Harry Lehr.
The Onlooker, Volume 1, Part 2|Various