misery
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹɪ/
enpr: mĭzʹə-rē
enpr: mĭzʹrē
ipa: /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹi/
Forms: form: miseries
Etymology: From Middle English miserie, from Old French miserie (modern: misère), from Latin miseria, from miser, equivalent to miser + -y. Doublet of misère and mizeria.
Senses: examples: text: Ever since his wife left him you can see the misery on his face.
text: For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.
ref: 1578–1579, Edmund Spenser, “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC:
text: It was not just the confusion that unhappiness brings, it was not just the loneliness, it was the despair that accompanies all those emotions that turns unhappiness into utter misery.
ref: 2008, Charlotte Bingham, The Land of Summer:
text: Then, in January, a creeping tsunami of train cancellations, triggered by major staff absences as a result of the aggressive transmissibility of Omicron, heaped further misery on rail users.
ref: 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:
synonyms: word: dejection
word: grief
word: sorrow
word: blueness
word: mirthless
word: blues
word: crestfallenness
word: dejection
word: depression
word: despondency
word: distress
word: dolefulness
word: downheartedness
word: drearihead
word: forlornness
word: grief
word: heartsore
word: ill-being
word: infelicity
word: melancholia
word: melancholy
word: misery
word: mishappiness
word: mourn
word: prosternation
word: regret
word: rue
word: ruth
word: sadness
word: sorrow
word: sorrowfulness
word: tristfulness
word: undelight
word: unhappiness
word: woe
word: woefare
word: wretchedness
glosses: Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
examples: text: [...] and I had a misery in my left breast and shoulder. I was hurt, but knew not how or how much.
ref: 1868, John Vestal Hadley, Seven Months a Prisoner, page 15:
synonyms: word: misery
word: pain
word: wark
glosses: A bodily ache or pain.
synonyms: word: adversity
word: woe
word: affliction
word: aggrievance
word: distress
word: grief
word: grievance
word: hardship
word: misery
word: ruth
word: sadness
word: sorrow
word: undelight
word: vexation
word: woe
word: wrong
glosses: Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.
examples: text: The Widdow that hath but a pan of braſſe, […]
Muſt pay her Landlord many a groat,
Or twil be puld out of her throat: […]
The rich haue all, the poore liue in miſerie: […]
ref: 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:
synonyms: word: armth
word: beggary
word: destitution
word: impecuniosity
word: impecuniousness
word: indigence
word: mendicancy
word: mendicity
word: misery
word: neediness
word: pauperism
word: penury
word: poverty
word: privation
word: reduced circumstances
word: slender means
word: straitened circumstances
qualifier: Extreme
glosses: poverty.
synonyms: word: avarice
word: covetise
word: covetousness
word: cupidity
word: greed
word: greediness
word: Mammon
word: rapacity
glosses: greed; avarice.
Derived terms: Fat Man's Misery
long streak of misery
Misery
misery enjoys company
misery guts
miseryguts
misery index
misery lit
misery loves company
misery porn
misery whip
mountain misery
put someone out of their misery
Related terms: commiserate
miser
miserable