Woe
[wəʊ] or [wo]
Definition
(n.) Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
(n.) A curse; a malediction.
(a.) Woeful; sorrowful.
Edited by Dwight
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Sorrow, grief, distress, tribulation, affliction, anguish, agony, bitterness, misery, wretchedness, unhappiness, trouble, heart-ache, heavy heart, bleeding heart, broken heart, mental suffering, pain of mind.
Checker: Ronnie
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Grief, sorrow, misery, calamity, affliction, distress, disaster, trouble,malediction, curse
ANT:Joy, gladness, comfort, boon, happiness, prosperity, weal, benediction, blessing
Edited by Colin
Definition
n. grief: misery: a heavy calamity: a curse: an exclamation of grief.—adj. sad wretched.—adjs. Woe′begone Wō′begone beset with woe (see Begone); Woe′ful Wō′ful Woe′some (Scot. Wae′some) sorrowful: bringing calamity: wretched.—advs. Woe′fully Wō′fully.—ns. Woe′fulness Wō′fulness.—adjs. Woe′-wea′ried -worn wearied worn with woe.—Woe worth the day (see Worth).—In weal and woe in prosperity and adversity.
Edited by Debra
Examples
- Woe to a dog if he crosses the line! Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Paul, then, might dance with whom he would--and woe be to the interference which put him out of step. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Let us help each other through seasons of want and woe as well as we can, without heeding in the least the scruples of vain philosophy. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I could not stand your countenance dressed up in woe and paleness. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Woe unto the world because of offences, but woe unto them through whom the offence cometh. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- But woe betide the one who has committed an act of bad faith, treachery, dishonesty, or ingratitude; THEN Edison can show what it is for a strong man to get downright mad. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Woe be to those whom he found there! William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Pity the laden one; this wandering woe May visit you and me. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- My deep love, my wild woe, my frantic prayer, are all nothing to you? Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- And woe to Boythorn or other daring wight who shall presumptuously contest an inch with him! Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Occupation alone, if I could deliver myself up to it, would be capable of affording an opiate to my sleepless sense of woe. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Ay sooth, we feel too strong in weal, to need Thee on that road; But woe being come, the soul is dumb, that crieth not on God. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- No, she added, in a softer tone; God mingles something of the balm of mercy even in vials of the most corrosive woe. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The woe they must bring seemed certain as death. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- The more because of the gathering woe of which she heard from Bessy. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Secrets absurd Leading to woes, Only are heard Under the rose. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- The communications were renewed from day to day: they always ran on the same theme--herself, her loves, and woes. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- So short now seemed the remaining voyage of life,--so near, so vivid, seemed eternal blessedness,--that life's uttermost woes fell from him unharming. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- When night fell he was then more at rest, for in sleep he found a certain amount of compensation for the woes of his waking hours. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- To that water--cause of my woes, perhaps now to be their cure, I would betake myself. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Oh, I know it is easy for one to advise calmly on the woes of others. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Before calamity she is a tigress; she rends her woes, shivers them in convulsed abhorrence. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- But he is generally melancholy and despairing; and sometimes he gnashes his teeth, as if impatient of the weight of woes that oppresses him. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- Miss Bart asked with a touch of irritation: she had not come to listen to the woes of other people. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Example: The selfishness of Achilles, as remarked by the poet Homer, occasioned a thousand woes to the Greeks--muri Achaiois alge etheke--(Hom. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
Checked by Kenneth