- 1(of a person) feeling sick or unhappy You look wretched—what's wrong? I felt wretched about the way things had turned out.
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- 2(formal) extremely bad or unpleasant synonym awful She had a wretched time at school. The animals are kept in the most wretched conditions.
- 3(formal) making you feel sorry for someone or something synonym pitiful She finally agreed to have the wretched animal put down.
- 4[only before noun] (informal) used to show that you think that someone or something is extremely annoying Is it that wretched woman again?
adverb “I'm so sorry,” she said wretchedly.
noun [uncountable]See wretched in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
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