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What is "wretch"

Crossword clues for wretch

wretch
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
wretch
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
poor
▪ No, but the other poor wretch did, and the ferryman remembers when.
▪ Then as now, judges felt more at ease burning some poor wretch if they had a confession in hand.
▪ But who gets these poor wretches with child?
▪ The sermon he found surprisingly proper, but Adams was repelled to see poor wretches fingering their prayer beads.
▪ High in the air, he had had an unimpeded view of them, poor wretches, too terrified even to pray.
▪ A love letter probably, poor little wretch.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ That miserable little wretch would lie to anyone.
▪ What would happen to this poor wretch when we let her go?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Besides, Mr. Williams, who would waste themselves on such a miserable wretch?
▪ He was a lonely, miserable wretch.
▪ I marvel who these wretches could be, moving in such numbers, and so heavily armed.
▪ Ten thousand wretches wanted to be Byron and ended as wretches, still wanting.
▪ The sermon he found surprisingly proper, but Adams was repelled to see poor wretches fingering their prayer beads.
▪ Then as now, judges felt more at ease burning some poor wretch if they had a confession in hand.
▪ Unhappy wretch that I am, I left my native fireside and alienated my home to seek strange truths in undiscovered lands.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Wretch

Wretch \Wretch\, n. [OE. wrecche, AS. wrecca, wr[ae]cca, an exile, a wretch, fr. wrecan to drive out, punish; properly, an exile, one driven out, akin to AS. wr[ae]c an exile, OS. wrekkio a stranger, OHG. reccheo an exile. See Wreak, v. t.]

  1. A miserable person; one profoundly unhappy. ``The wretch that lies in woe.''
    --Shak.

    Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son, Wretch even then, life's journey just begun?
    --Cowper.

  2. One sunk in vice or degradation; a base, despicable person; a vile knave; as, a profligate wretch.

    Note: Wretch is sometimes used by way of slight or ironical pity or contempt, and sometimes to express tenderness; as we say, poor thing. ``Poor wretch was never frighted so.''
    --Drayton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
wretch

Old English wrecca "wretch, stranger, exile," from Proto-Germanic *wrakjon "pursuer; one pursued" (cognates: Old Saxon wrekkio, Old High German reckeo "a banished person, exile," German recke "renowned warrior, hero"), related to Old English wreccan "to drive out, punish" (see wreak). "The contrast in the development of the meaning in Eng. and German is remarkable" [OED]. Sense of "vile, despicable person" developed in Old English, reflecting the sorry state of the outcast, as presented in Anglo-Saxon verse (such as "The Wanderer"). Compare German Elend "misery," from Old High German elilenti "sojourn in a foreign land, exile."

Wiktionary
wretch

n. An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.

WordNet
wretch

  1. n. performs some wicked deed

  2. someone you feel sorry for [syn: poor devil]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Wretch (album)

Wretch is the first full-length album by American rock band Kyuss. It was released in September 1991, on Dali Records. Previously billed as Sons of Kyuss, the band shortened their name prior to the release of this album. The album contains a mixture of previously recorded demos and newly recorded material.

Before Wretch was released, the titles of "Stage III" and "The Law" were mentioned in the runout groove of the Sons of Kyuss EP.

Wretch

Wretch may refer to:

  • Wretch (album), an album by Kyuss
  • Wretch (website), a Taiwanese web log community.
  • Wretch, a song from the Protest the Hero album Fortress
Wretch (website)

Wretch was a Taiwanese community web site; in Chinese, its name means Nameless Little Site. At one time it was the most well-known blog community in Taiwan with thousands of users registered. Wretch provided free photo album, and blog hosting services. Four languages, including English, were available. A more extensive VIP version was offered. It had been the top visited site using Traditional Chinese and the second in Taiwan after Yahoo Taiwan according to Alexa.

The domain wretch.cc attracted at least 4 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.

In July 2007, Yahoo acquired Wretch; this became the biggest acquisition of Yahoo in Taiwan since Kimo, which was the major stepping stone to Yahoo's success in Taiwan's market. Shortly after the transaction, an angry wave of users have reacted in complaints to the changes in terms of conditions.

Wretch.cc has been blocked by the internet censorship in the People's Republic of China since August 2007.

On 30 August 2013, Yahoo announced Wretch would be closed on 26 December, along with Yahoo! Blog.

Usage examples of "wretch".

The troops of ladies were off to bereave themselves of their fashionable imitation old lace adornment, which denounced them in some sort abettors and associates of the sanguinary loathed wretch, Mrs.

In a burst of red abysmal ferocity it was over, except for one wretch who fled screaming back the way the priests had come, pursued by a swarm of blood-dabbled shapes of horror which reached out their red-smeared hands for him.

Though you cannot want sufficient calls to repentance for the many unwarrantable weaknesses exemplified in your behaviour to this wretch, so much to the prejudice of your own lawful family, and of your character, I say, though these may sufficiently be supposed to prick and goad your conscience at this season, I should yet be wanting to my duty, if I spared to give you some admonition in order to bring you to a due sense of your errors.

The guilty wretch was fastened to two trees forcibly drawn towards each other, and his limbs were torn asunder by their sudden separation.

Finds Out That I Have d Mistress--She is Avenged on the Wretch Capsucefalo-- I Ruin Myself at Play, and at the Suggestion of M.

The wrath of the king was now terrible to behold, and assembling his council, he bade them decide how he should punish the wretch who had twice ill treated his messengers.

If there was a God more powerful than the sea, and only half as good as men are, he would pity my poor Rosa and me, and send a hurricane to drive those caitiffs back to the wretch they have abandoned.

The poor wretch, who came from Bologna and was a musician by profession, came and sat down with us without a word.

I often thought afterwards of those poor wretches toiling away underground and wondered how the other canary got along who took my place.

It seemed to me that I had brought dishonour upon Bettina, that I had betrayed the confidence of her family, offended against the sacred laws of hospitality, that I was guilty of a most wicked crime, which I could only atone for by marrying her, in case Bettina could make up her mind to accept for her husband a wretch unworthy of her.

When supper was over I gave her her choice: she might either stay in Leipzig and fare as best she might, or I would reclaim her effects, take her with me to Dresden, and pay her a hundred gold ducats as soon as I could be certain that she would not give the money to the wretch who had reduced her to such an extremity.

As for Molinari, after which I had seen, I could only set him down as an infamous wretch.

The poor wretch was sent to an asylum, and did not recover her reason for five years.

To a man of letters in my situation, paper and ink would take away nine-tenths of the torture, but the wretches who persecuted me did not dream of granting me such an alleviation of my misery.

What made me notice her more particularly was that her dress and hat were exactly like those I had given to the Charpillon a few days before, but as I believed the poor wretch to be dead or dying the likeness did not inspire me with any suspicion.