All 5 Uses of
wretched
in
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
- He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step.
p. 28.2wretched = unfortunate or miserable
- Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched outcast, who had no right to express an opinion on the subject.
p. 83.1wretched = morally bad
- From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable.
p. 89.8 *wretched = unfortunate or miserable
- The ways were foul and narrow; the shops and houses wretched; the people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly.
p. 98.8wretched = of poor quality
- Here, then; the wretched man whose name he had now to learn, lay underneath the ground.
p. 113.9wretched = unfortunate
Definition:
very bad
in various senses, including:
- unfortunate or miserable -- as in "wretched prisoners sleeping on the cold floor"
- of poor quality -- as in "wretched roads"
- morally bad -- as in "The wretched woman stole his wallet."