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wretch - 4 dictionary results

wretch

  [rech]
Use wretch in a Sentence
–noun
1. a deplorably unfortunate or unhappy person.
2. a person of despicable or base character.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME wrecche, OE wrecca exile, adventurer; c. G Recke warrior, hero, ON rekkr man
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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wretch   (rěch)   
n.  
  1. A miserable, unfortunate, or unhappy person.
  2. A person regarded as base, mean, or despicable: "a stony adversary, an inhuman wretch" (Shakespeare).

[Middle English wrecche, from Old English wrecca, exiles, wretch.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : wretch
Spanish: desgraciado, miserable,
German: das Wesen,
Japanese: みじめな人
More Translations »

wretch 
O.E. wrecca "wretch, stranger, exile," from P.Gmc. *wrakjan (cf. O.S. wrekkio, O.H.G. reckeo "a banished person, exile," Ger. recke "renowned warrior, hero"), related to O.E. wreccan "to drive out, punish" (see wreak). Sense of "vile, despicable person" developed in O.E., reflecting the sorry state of the outcast, as presented in much of Anglo-Saxon verse (e.g. "The Wanderer"). A Ger. word for "misery" is Elend, from O.H.G. elilenti "sojourn in a foreign land, exile."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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