TRAGIC

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tragic mean? 

• TRAGIC (adjective)
  The adjective TRAGIC has 2 senses:

1. very sad; especially involving grief or death or destruction

2. of or relating to or characteristic of tragedy

  Familiarity information: TRAGIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TRAGIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Very sad; especially involving grief or death or destruction

Synonyms:

tragic; tragical

Context example:

a tragic accident

Similar:

sad (experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness)

Derivation:

tragedy (an event resulting in great loss and misfortune)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of or relating to or characteristic of tragedy

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

tragic hero

Domain category:

drama (the literary genre of works intended for the theater)

Pertainym:

tragedy (drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity)

Derivation:

tragedy (drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity)

 Context examples 

It was not only a crime, it had been a tragic folly.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Indeed, when there is limited emotional identification with other people, communication becomes inhibited and, ultimately, this may lead to negative—even tragic—results.

(White people’s perceptions of the emotions on black people’s faces are less accurate than their perceptions among other white people, University of Granada)

It told how two Englishmen who had been traveling with a woman had met with a tragic end.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There is surely something more than that, said he; some underlying suggestion of the tragic and the terrible.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curly, he received another shock.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He has been very much upset by the tragic news.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her features are not tragic features, and she walks too quick, and speaks too quick, and would not keep her countenance.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It needed a robust faith in the end to justify such tragic means.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He found that the newspaper storiette should never be tragic, should never end unhappily, and should never contain beauty of language, subtlety of thought, nor real delicacy of sentiment.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"Salt instead of sugar, and the cream is sour," replied Meg with a tragic gesture.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)