[syn: hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, wretched]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Wretched \Wretch"ed\, a.
1. Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep
affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief;
calamitous; woeful; very afflicting. "To what wretched
state reserved!" --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
O cruel! Death! to those you are more kind
Than to the wretched mortals left behind. --Waller.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
wretched
adj 1: of very poor quality or condition; "deplorable housing
conditions in the inner city"; "woeful treatment of the
accused"; "woeful errors of judgment" [syn: deplorable,
execrable, miserable, woeful, wretched]
2: characterized by physical misery; "a wet miserable weekend";
"spent a wretched night on the floor" [syn: miserable,
wretched]
3: very unhappy; full of misery; "he felt depressed and
miserable"; "a message of hope for suffering humanity";
"wretched prisoners huddled in stinking cages" [syn:
miserable, suffering, wretched]
4: morally reprehensible; "would do something as despicable as
murder"; "ugly crimes"; "the vile development of slavery
appalled them"; "a slimy little liar" [syn: despicable,
ugly, vile, slimy, unworthy, worthless, wretched]
5: deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable
victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as
extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for
help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh,
you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched
life" [syn: hapless, miserable, misfortunate,
pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor,
wretched]