(~s)
1.
If you describe someone as ~, you mean that something unpleasant or unlucky has happened to them. You can also describe the unpleasant things that happen to them as ~.
Some ~ person passing below could all too easily be seriously injured...
Apparently he had been ~ enough to fall victim to a gang of thugs...
Through some ~ accident, the information reached me a day late...
It was ~ for Davey that his teacher did not take kindly to him.
= unlucky
ADJ
2.
If you describe something that has happened as ~, you think that it is inappropriate, embarrassing, awkward, or undesirable.
It really is desperately ~ that this should have happened just now.
...the ~ incident of the upside-down Canadian flag...
ADJ
3.
You can describe someone as ~ when they are poor or have a difficult life.
Every year we have charity days to raise money for ~ people.
ADJ
•
An ~ is someone who is ~.
Dorothy was another of life’s ~s.
N-COUNT