Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state or quality of being woeful; misery; calamity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being woeful; misery; wretchedness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the quality of being woeful

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun intense mournfulness

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word woefulness.

Examples

  • I gazed at her naked belly for a long while and, finally, with a kind of woefulness, bowed my head.

    Middlesex Eugenides, Jeffery 2002

  • Israel uses Intifada, Hamas, Qassam canister rockets, guns, and the act of youth throwing stones (vs. tanks, bombs, air power, and the threat of nukes) as a perennial caveat for the breakdown of talks: it is very savvy at keeping up a rhetorical façade of disconsolate woefulness and pathos for international benefit.

    Rizwan A. Rahmani: The Art of Talking Middle East Peace with a Forked Tongue 2010

  • Israel uses Intifada, Hamas, Qassam canister rockets, guns, and the act of youth throwing stones vs. tanks, bombs, air power, and the threat of nukes as a perennial caveat for the breakdown of talks: it is very savvy at keeping up a rhetorical façade of disconsolate woefulness and pathos for international benefit.

    Rizwan A. Rahmani: The Art of Talking Middle East Peace with a Forked Tongue Rizwan A. Rahmani 2010

  • Israel uses Intifada, Hamas, Qassam canister rockets, guns, and the act of youth throwing stones (vs. tanks, bombs, air power, and the threat of nukes) as a perennial caveat for the breakdown of talks: it is very savvy at keeping up a rhetorical façade of disconsolate woefulness and pathos for international benefit.

    Rizwan A. Rahmani: The Art of Talking Middle East Peace with a Forked Tongue 2010

  • Israel uses Intifada, Hamas, Qassam canister rockets, guns, and the act of youth throwing stones (vs. tanks, bombs, air power, and the threat of nukes) as a perennial caveat for the breakdown of talks: it is very savvy at keeping up a rhetorical façade of disconsolate woefulness and pathos for international benefit.

    Rizwan A. Rahmani: The Art of Talking Middle East Peace with a Forked Tongue 2010

  • Being a stoic I can do no other but grin and bare the interim period and relish the seeing of the change appear along with the pain of those who are left to explain their woefulness. logdon

    On Thursday, the Legg report will be published along with... 2008

  • Finally, Sutton pressed the woefulness down and went on.

    The Welkening Gregory Spencer 2004

  • Finally, Sutton pressed the woefulness down and went on.

    The Welkening Gregory Spencer 2004

  • Finally, Sutton pressed the woefulness down and went on.

    The Welkening Gregory Spencer 2004

  • Or is it the lamenting Elegiac, which in a kind heart would move rather pity than blame, who bewails with the great philosopher Heraclitus the weakness of mankind, and the wretchedness of the world: who surely is to be praised, either for compassionate accompanying just causes of lamentation, or for rightly painting out how weak be the passions of woefulness.

    English literary criticism Various

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.