Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Deep distress or misery, as from grief; wretchedness. See Synonyms at regret.
- n. Misfortune; calamity: economic and political woes.
- interj. Used to express sorrow or dismay.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Alas! an exclamation of pain or grief. See woe, n.
- n. Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
- n. A heavy calamity; an affliction.
- n. It is also used in exclamations of sorrow, in such cases the noun or pronoun following being really in the dative.
- n. Synonyms Distress, tribulation, affliction, bitterness, unhappiness, wretchedness. Woe is an intense unhappiness; the word is strong aud elevated, almost poetical.
- Sad; sorrowful; miserable; woeful; wretched.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
- n. A curse; a malediction.
- adj. obsolete Woeful; sorrowful.
WordNet 3.0
- n. intense mournfulness
- n. misery resulting from affliction
Etymologies
- From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wā, from Proto-Germanic *wai, whence also German weh, Old High German wē, Old Norse vei. Compare Latin vae. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English wa, wo, from Old English wā, woe!. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“In this chapter, Jesus used the word woe eight times as a strong warning to those who, through legalism, were keeping people out of heaven.”
“Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris -- To have companions in woe is a solace to those who suffer.”
“It bespoke them rebellious children; and a woe is here denounced against them under that character, v. 1.”
“This woe is the moral of that judicial law (Exod.xxi. 33, 34-22: 6), that he who opened the pit, and kindled the fire, was accountable for all the damage that ensued.”
“I'm in currently in the "woe is me" stage, which was preceded by the overwhelmed state.”
“Yesterday's verse got little traction the status message poetry faction was completely out of action woe is me”
“All of those effete young men flitting about in their blue waistcoats and yellow britches crying ‘woe is me’ before offing themselves?”
“Virtually all of the recommendations in this piece call for a greater role for the government, and I don't apologize for any of that, for when the mountain of woe is as high as it is now, you call for Edmund Hillary, which in this case is the government.”
“The profile of Barack Obama by Peter Baker in the New York Times Sunday magazine ( "The Education of A President," October 17, 2010) has a "woe is me" tone.”
The Huffington Post: Derek Shearer: Bridging the Enthusiasm Gap: Obama and the Conventional Wisdom
“Mila: No. Very rarely am I attracted to characters that are “woe is me.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘woe’.
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grade 3
ability, absorb, act, tive, actual, adopt, advantage, ambition, ancient, arrange, arctic, attitude and 125 more...
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•Public List: Delightful Ejaculations
All those awesome phrases you hear that you want to say every chance you get. Thanks to adoarns for the inspiration (on the vitamin h page).
just tits, jumping jesus on ..., sweet mother of p..., great day in the ..., ye gods and littl..., leaping lizards, holy cats, hot damn, good gosh miss agnes, mother dog, good night, hoover dam! and 102 more...
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Ayumi G3
Ability, absorb, accuse, act, active, actual, adopt, advantage, advice, ambition, ancient, approach and 128 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Side effects may include...
Before you take that medication, you'd better read the warning label.
nausea, sweating, dizziness, dry mouth, drowsiness, vomiting, walking like an E..., spontaneous decap..., amnesia, anosmia, weltschmertz, flatulence and 68 more...
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The blues
lugubrious, mournful, doleful, plaintive, tremulous, plangent, dyspeptic, morose, poignant, lamenting, lamentation, sad and 8 more...
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Sorrow is better than laughter; for b...
lachrymose, sorrow, melancholic, wail, mournful, sob, misery, wretchedness, anguish, agony, heartbreak, lament and 38 more...
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emo words
feelings...blah, blah, blah, feelings...
forsaken, anguish, angst, sorrowful, dejected, depressed, disconsolate, heartbroken, genial, chipper, inadequate, helpless and 58 more...
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3LW
3 letter words, not the girl band.
boggle and speed scrabble would not be half as fun without them.aah, boa, dot, fun, ick, log, oca, pyx, sos, was, aal, bob and 342 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Prosie: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Ad...
(Given Saturday, March 4, 1865, Washington, D.C.)
Fellow-Countrymen:
At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office there is less occasion for an extended a...with all nations, among ourselves, a just and lastin..., cherish, achieve, to do all, for his widow and..., to care for him w..., to bind up the na..., let us strive on ..., with firmness in ..., with charity for all and 169 more...
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pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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vozcelik's Words
cranny, tummy, nook, sinister, cajole, frugal, chafe, wimp, booger, patriarchy, indifference, mire and 162 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (W)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
wail, waistcoat, wales, wallflower, wand, wandering, wanderlust, waning, ward, wardrobe, warp, wassail and 97 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for woe.
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