MISERY

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A feeling of intense unhappiness

Example:

she was exhausted by her misery and grief

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("misery" is a kind of...):

sadness; unhappiness (emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A state of ill-being due to affliction or misfortune

Example:

the misery and wretchedness of those slums is intolerable

Synonyms:

miserableness; misery; wretchedness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("misery" is a kind of...):

ill-being (lack of prosperity or happiness or health)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "misery"):

concentration camp (a situation characterized by crowding and extremely harsh conditions)

living death (a state of constant misery)

suffering; woe (misery resulting from affliction)

Credits

Context examples:

Elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officious attention!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

“I wish,” cried she, “that I were to die with you; I cannot live in this world of misery.”

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I feel sure it will work you more misery if you listen to it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Causing physical or psychological misery, pain or distress.

(Painful, NCI Thesaurus)

Not causing physical or psychological misery, pain or distress.

(Painless, NCI Thesaurus)

Jo read it thankfully, but the heavy weight did not seem lifted off her heart, and her face was so full of misery that Laurie asked quickly, "What is it? Is Beth worse?"

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

A cold sweat broke out over my body, and my heart turned sick at the misery of it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They wept over the miseries of the past and over the miseries yet to come under the iron rule of Wolf Larsen.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They sat at the lowest depth of human misery, and hugged a bitter comfort to their souls as they realized that they could go no lower.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Their irritability arose out of their misery, increased with it, doubled upon it, outdistanced it.