Link Centre Dictionary

woeful

woe·ful

UK/ˈwəʊfəl/ US/ˈwoʊfʌl/ rare

adjective

1.

affected by or full of grief or woe

  • “his sorrow...made him look...haggard and...woebegone” George du Maurier
Synonyms
Similar
2.

of very poor quality or condition

  • “deplorable housing conditions in the inner city”
  • “woeful treatment of the accused”
  • “woeful errors of judgment”

Origin

From Middle English woful, waful, equivalent to woe + -ful. Compare Old English wālīċ (“woeful”), Old English tēonful (“woeful”).

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.