/ wəʊ; NAmE woʊ/ noun ( old-fashioned or humorous )
1.
woes [ pl. ] the troubles and problems that sb has :
financial woes
Thanks for listening to my woes.
2.
[ U ] great unhappiness
SYN misery :
a tale of woe
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IDIOMS
- woe betide sb | woe to sb
- woe is me!
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WORD ORIGIN
natural exclamation of lament: recorded as wā in Old English and found in several Germanic languages.