alack

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“
Alas and alack, after further analyzing the numbers I was disappointed to find that it wasn't that Wisconsinites overall have lost weight, it is just that Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Delaware all put more weight on at a faster rate pushing them past America's dairyland.

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Definitions (3)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. interjection Used to express sorrow, regret, or alarm: "'Las and fearful alack—nobody can make such high claims for the people then living in Maine” (John Gould).

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Examples (50)

  • There were some days and weeks in which she was given as much as she could possibly finish, but there were others--alack! —  A Tame Surrender, A Story of The Chicago Strike
  • "'Your Majesty,' he said, 'for the memory of bygone quibbles I sought him, but found him not--alack!--on the stool of repentance About the fool's mouth quivered the grim suggestion of a half-smile He is the best jester of us all," he muttered. —  Under the Rose
  • See, here is the rope Well, he took hold of it, near where it was fastened to the chimney, to show the frog boy how it was done, but, alas, and also alack-a-day! —  Bully and Bawly No-Tail
  • Alack, alack, 'tis a desperate piece of wickedness! —  Mark Hurdlestone Or, The Two Brothers
  • Belay And alack-a-day That I gazed in the eyes of beauty For in devious ways Their innocent gaze Has caused me much extra duty IV I never get past The jolly old mast The skipper and I are quite chummy He knows me by sight When I'm sober or tight And calls me a "wicked old rummy A sort of sweetheart-in-every-port type I intend to make him--a seafaring man of the old school such as I suppose some of the six-stripers around here were. —  Biltmore Oswald The Diary of a Hapless Recruit
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. On the model of alas; see lack.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English alac, alacke, North. alake, alaik; according to Skeat, from a, ah, + lack, failure, fault, disgrace. Otherwise explained as a variation of alas, q. v.; the phonetic change is unusual, but interjections are unstable. Also shortened to lack.
 

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/əˈlæk/
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