miserable

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   characterized by physical misery

   a wet miserable weekend

2. 2
   adj

   In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.

   Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

3. 3
   adj

   Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless.

   He's good at some sports, like tennis, but he's just miserable at football.

4. 4
   adj

   Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible.

   a miserable sinner

5. 5
   adj

   Causing unhappiness or misery.

   For what's more miserable than discontent?

6. 6
   adj

   Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.

   the liberal-hearted man is by the opinion of the prodigal miserable, and by the judgment of the miserable lavish

7. 7
   noun

   A miserable person; a wretch.

   Dona Carmen repaired to the balcony to chat and jest with, and at, these miserables, who stopped before the door to rest in their progress. All pretended poverty while literally groaning under the weight of their riches.

8. 8
   noun

   A state of misery or melancholy.

   By 3:00 P.M. both DeeDee and Sandra's pants were thoroughly soaked, and this unhappy circumstance gave DeeDee a bad case of the miserables.

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French miserable, from Old French, from Latin miserabilis, equivalent to miser + -able.