wretch

CEFRC2

/ɹɛt͡ʃ/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A person you feel pity or strong dislike for.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    An exile.

Examples

  • One should never deride the wretch, for who can be sure of always being happy?

  • What now, you wretch? You thinking of protecting her?

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. An unpleasant, annoying, worthless, or despicable person.

  2. An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.

More examples

In context

  • The poor wretch, who lay motionless a long time, just began to recover his senses as a stage-coach came by.

  • The four unhappy wretches labouring under sentence of banishment were freed from their fetters, to rejoin their former society; and three days given as holidays to every convict in the colony.

  • I asked that selfish wretch, Winterblossom, to walk down with me to view her distress, and the heartless beast told me he was afraid of infection!

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The poor blank begged for money on every cold street corner.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English wrecche, from Old English wreċċa (“exile, outcast”), from Proto-Germanic *wrakjô (“exile, fugitive, warrior”), from Proto-Indo-European *wreg- (“to track, follow”). Doublet of garçon.