woeful

adjective

No English definition recorded for this entry.

Pronunciation: /ˈwəʊfəl/

Etymology: From Middle English woful, waful, equivalent to woe + -ful. Compare Old English wālīċ (“woeful”), Old English tēonful (“woeful”).

Full of woe; sorrowful; distressed with grief or calamity.
“How many woeful widows left to bow / To sad disgrace!”
Bringing calamity, distress, or affliction.
“a woeful event”
“a woeful lack of restraint”
Lamentable, deplorable.
“Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy: This wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play in.”
Wretched; paltry; poor.
“What woful stuff this madrigal would be / In some starv'd hackney sonneteer or me!”