wretch
Americannoun
-
a deplorably unfortunate or unhappy person.
-
a person of despicable or base character.
noun
-
a despicable person
-
a person pitied for his misfortune
Etymology
Origin of wretch
before 900; Middle English wrecche, Old English wrecca exile, adventurer; cognate with German Recke warrior, hero, Old Norse rekkr man
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.
This pathetic wretch longs to escape to Istanbul, where he can be around the worldly types he prefers.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 22, 2024
She opposed what she described as a "Western perception that the African female is a downtrodden wretch".
From BBC • May 31, 2023
His Harry is in some ways the flip side of Smike, the poor mangled wretch he played in “The Life & Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” in the early 1980s.
From New York Times • Apr. 21, 2022
Meeting Wilson after the game for an interview in a conference room at Camp Randall Stadium, I was startled that a 5-foot-11, ink-stained wretch like me could look him straight in the eye.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 8, 2022
Hungry Joe was a jumpy, emaciated wretch with a fleshless face of dingy skin and bone and twitching veins squirming subcutaneously in the blackened hollows behind his eyes like severed sections of snake.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
