I. ˈmizərbəl, -z(ə)rəb- adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin miserabilis wretched, pitiable, from miserari to lament, pity (from miser wretched) + -abilis -able
1. chiefly dialect England : stingy , miserly
2.
a. : wretchedly deficient or meager : having little value : contemptible : worthless
the squalor of mean and miserable streets — Laurence Binyon
a bitter sort of acorns, from which a miserable flour is ground — J.G.Frazer
read the miserable newspapers which the censors plus the paper shortage permitted — Upton Sinclair
b. : marked by or productive of extreme discomfort or unhappiness
spent a wet and miserable weekend — their medicine gone and their food running low — American Guide Series: California
no pressure of opinion forces him to raise their miserable standard of living above the bare necessities — P.E.James
3. : existing in a state of extreme poverty or unhappiness : wretched
a confused, uprooted mass of miserable human beings — R.E.Crist
for five thousand years had been among the most miserable people on earth — Claire Sterling
4. : shameful , discreditable
a miserable abdication of the rights of a friend — Herbert Read
it's downright miserable of you to make fun of it — Robertson Davies
his miserable treatment of his family
Synonyms:
wretched: in reference to a person's feelings, miserable suggests acute discomfort or distress; in reference to things it may describe what is deplorably or contemptibly poor, mean, meager, or deficient
I should like him to die miserable, poor, and starving, without a friend. I hope he'll rot with some loathsome disease — W.S.Maugham
the witch's cabin seemed only somewhat more miserable than that of other old women. The floor was mud, the rafters unceiled; the stars shone through the turf roof — Charles Kingsley
In reference to a person's feelings or condition, wretched suggests extreme despondence and misery because of affliction, oppression, or destitution; in reference to things, it indicates extreme badness or deplorable poorness
our wretched captive, shivering and cowering in the grasp of the detective — A. Conan Doyle
the youth was wretched. His home life was obviously hellish — Dorothy Thompson
the ruin wrought by the most wretched type of slum which seems infinitely uglier and crueller than the vilest railroad tenements — Marcia Davenport
II. noun
( -s )
: one who is miserable ; especially : one who is extremely poor
a miserable without a shirt to his back