How to use wretched in a sentence

34 example sentences · adjective

Wretched means characterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable. Example: “I felt wretched after my wife died.”

Examples of wretched by meaning

adjectiveCharacterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable.

I felt wretched after my wife died.
As for me, I felt wretched and helpless, in the darkness, surrounded with angry waves, whose noise deafened me.1918, Maxim Gorky, “My Fellow-traveller”, in J. [K.] M. Shirazi [et al.], transl., Creatures that Once were Men […], New York, N.Y.: Boni...

adjectiveOf an inferior or unworthy nature or social status; contemptible, lowly.

The street was full of wretched beggars dressed in rags.
My room is a wretched, horrid one in the outskirts of the town.1918, Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Notes from Underground: A Novel: Part I: Underground”, in Constance Garnett, transl., White Nights and Other...
Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXXVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page...

adjectiveOf an insignificant, mean, or poor nature; miserable, paltry, worthless.

I just lack the fine motor skill. Same reason I'm a grown man who doesn't know how to use a screwdriver without looking like a retard. Oh, I'm wretched.

adjectiveOf a person, etc.: behaving in a manner causing contempt; base, despicable, wicked.

There is nothing as wretched or as hated in all the world as a Traitor.1993, Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers, Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook, Second edition, Games Workshop, page 22

adjectiveUsed to express annoyance towards or dislike of someone or something: bloody, damned.

Will you please stop playing that wretched trombone!

More sentences with wretched

The video images of him banging on the concrete walls of his cell are wretched.2020 August 21, Martin Chilton, “The tragedy of Ivan, the 'shopping mall gorilla' who drove America wild”, in Chris Evans, editor, The…. From the entry concrete
In Eva Strella’s wretched domain, the sight of Pigsloff’s macabre remains struck Ganoate’s heart.2015, Brad A. Braddock, Jason Pacy, “The Black Tree in the South Forest”, in The Village of Eben Hollow, United States: Black Rose…. From the entry dungeon master
Mos Eisley spaceport- you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.1977, Star Wars, spoken by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness). From the entry villainy
They were no longer the oppressed, wretched teen menials who must take orders, toe the line.1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Dec 2022. From the entry molest
But please notice that even these wretched earnings are gross earnings.1937 March 8, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in The Road to Wigan Pier, London: Victor Gollancz, published May…. From the entry gross
Wretched brutes there at the cattlemarket waiting for the poleaxe to split their skulls open.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 8: Laestrygonians]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey]…. From the entry staggering bob
I know I am a sad spoilsport, but it would make me wretched.1908, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter XIV, in A Room with a View, London: Edward Arnold, →OCLC. From the entry spoilsport
They were appalling, so wretched it was difficult to recall a worse goalkeeping performance in any major final through the years.2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian (London). From the entry appalling
If I could unwrite that wretched book, I would.2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, →ISBN, page 420. From the entry unwrite
O'Kelly whispered hoarsely, “Speak, you wretched flea-bag.2007, DJ Birmingham, The Queen's Tale: The Struggle for the Survival of Ireland, →ISBN, page 124. From the entry flea bag
And Russia, in its wretched boom, sulks with him.2006 April 30, Walter Kirn, “Russian Unorthodox”, in The New York Times. From the entry panoramist
'the cottages, or rather hovels, in which the farm labourers dwell are squalidly wretched and unfit for human habitation'.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 121. From the entry squalidly
She had thought in the past of autoforgetting with dread and fear, feeling something unclean and wretched about being a forgetty.1979, M.A. Foster, Gameplayers of Zan, page 27. From the entry forgetty
She pictured him as a crafty adventurer, a wretched fortune-hunter.1916, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 5, in Uneasy Money. From the entry fortune-hunter
He wouldn't be able not to smell of the wretched man's blood, morally speaking, too strongly for condonations or complacencies.1901, Henry James, The Papers. From the entry condonations
Each day he grew more and more wretched, till at length he took to his bed and never got up.1901, Andrew Lang, “The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet”, in The Violet Fairy Book. From the entry take to one's bed
He was carving a fowl at the time; and with a blade of blunt unservice made but wretched work of it.1901, Alfred Henry Lewis, Richard Croker - Volume 1, page 251. From the entry unservice
Wretched man, I'd lost the first and last treasures of my life when I had not yet had my fill of either.2017, Andrew Louth -, The Way of a Pilgrim: Candid Tales of a Wanderer to His Spiritual Father, →ISBN. From the entry one's fill
The only time you have a homosexual outcome is when your intrinsic heterosexuality, your altrigenderism, has been blocked by wretched childhood experiences.2000, Rik Isensee, The God Squad, page 22. From the entry altrigenderism
"Why mangelest thou a wretched man?1977, Basil Davenport, The portable Roman reader. From the entry beguilt
It had been a wretched night.1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 180. From the entry planless
In that little office, seated before that wretched Do No Bend envelope, the red mist came down, and it wasn't a mist, it was a torrent.2023, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Spare, Penguin Random House, →ISBN. From the entry red mist
Without the ball, he was often the furthest player forward, harrying Raphaël Varane and Éder Militão and cutting off the supply to Casemiro (all of whom had wretched games).2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian. From the entry drop back
However, despite their wretched record of not having won a top-flight away game in their last 26 attempts, Fulham showed no signs of travel sickness against Stoke.2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC. From the entry top-flight
You will not be using him as your meat puppet.” “You think I'd want this wretched homunculus for a body?” “I right here.” “Oh, no, you have me all wrong.2024 November 11, Jake Bender & Zach Dunn, “Laszlo's Father” (22:09 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 6…. From the entry meat puppet
Undoubtedly the best moment of that wretched start to the year was when we returned to Carshalton (a sunny, crocussy, even spring-like Carshalton, I’m glad to say) to collect Otis.2007, Graham Swift, Tomorrow, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 124. From the entry crocussy

Meaning of wretched

adjective Characterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable.
adjective Of an inferior or unworthy nature or social status; contemptible, lowly.
adjective Of an insignificant, mean, or poor nature; miserable, paltry, worthless.

Full definition of wretched

Questions about wretched in a sentence

How do you use wretched in a sentence?: Wretched is used as an adjective. For example: “I felt wretched after my wife died.”
What is a short sentence with wretched?: “"Why mangelest thou a wretched man?”
What does wretched mean?: Wretched means characterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable.

Adapted from Wiktionary: wretched (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use wretched in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/wretched. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.