WRETCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does wretch mean? 

• WRETCH (noun)
  The noun WRETCH has 2 senses:

1. performs some wicked deed

2. someone you feel sorry for

  Familiarity information: WRETCH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WRETCH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Performs some wicked deed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("wretch" is a kind of...):

miscreant; reprobate (a person without moral scruples)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone you feel sorry for

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

poor devil; wretch

Hypernyms ("wretch" is a kind of...):

victim (an unfortunate person who suffers from some adverse circumstance)

 Context examples 

“Alas! miserable wretch that I am!” cried he.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It's all the fault of you two wretches.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was a poor, helpless, miserable wretch; I knew, and could distinguish, nothing; but feeling pain invade me on all sides, I sat down and wept.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Then shall we make our final coup, and hunt the wretch to his real death.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Never mind what she says. I'm the wretch that did it, sir," said the new member, with a Welleresque nod to Mr. Pickwick.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was the most miserable wretch!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Glorious discovery to a lonely wretch!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The wretch sank into a chair, paralysed at the sight of my revolver.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet the food you have eaten or wasted might have saved the lives of a score of wretches who made the food but did not eat it.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I refused, as you can imagine, and asked my father how he could allow such a wretch to take such liberties with himself and his household.

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