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to disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . struggled hard against this degrading passion. Macaulay.

A squalid place of resort; a wretched dwelling place; a haunt; as, a den of vice. "Those squalid dens, which are the reproach of great capitals." Addison.

being deplored or lamented; lamentable; causing grief; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; wretched; as, life's evils are deplorable. Individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable conditious than any others. Burke.

displeases; cause of irritation or annoyance; offense; injury. Hast thou delight to see a wretched man Do outrage and displeasure to himself Shak.

ivest one of his rights or privileges; to divest one's self of prejudices, passions, etc. Wretches divested of every moral feeling. Goldsmith. The tendency of the language to divest itself of its gutturals. Earle.

A mean, worthless fellow; a wretch. What is thy servant, which is but a dog, that he should do this great thing 2 Kings viii. 13 (Rev. Ver. )

Sorrow; wretchedness. [Obs.]

ab junkets eat. Milton. The island princes overbold Have eat our substance. Tennyson. His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages. Thackeray.

Sorrowful; wretched; full of trouble. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Destitute of animation; spiritless; disheartened. [R.] "Pale . . . wretch, exanimate by love." Thomson.

Deserving to be execrated; accursed; damnable; detestable; abominable; as, an execrable wretch. "Execrable pride." Hooker. -- Ex"e*cra*ble*ness, n. -- Ex"e*cra*bly, adv.

ger, or ridicule; to expose an army to destruction or defeat. Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel. Shak.

To fly or flee from; to shun; to avoid. Sleep flies the wretch. Dryden. To fly the favors of so good a king. Shak.

Superiority; advantage; start; precedence. And, but for ceremony, such a wretch . . . Had the forehand and vantage of a king. Shak.

Destitute; helpless; in pitiful plight; wretched; miserable; almost hopeless; desperate. For here forlorn and lost I tread. Goldsmith. The condition of the besieged in the mean time was forlorn in the extreme. Prescott. She cherished the forlorn hope that he was still living. Thomson. A forlorn hope Etym: [D. verloren…

Hateful; detestable; shameful; odious; wretched. "The foul with Sycorax." Shak. Who first seduced them to that foul revolt Milton.

Mad; raving; furious; violent; wild and disorderly; distracted. Die, frantic wretch, for this accursed deed! Shak. Torrents of frantic abuse. Macaulay. -- Fran"tic*al*ly, adv. -- Fran"tic*ly, adv. Shak. -- Fran"tic*ness, n. Johnson.

of the thoughts or subject; bombast. Claudius . . . has run his description into the most wretched fustian. Addison.

A wretch who deserves the gallows. [R.] Shak.

as, the remark was received with groans. Such groans of roaring wind and rain. Shak. The wretched animal heaved forth such groans. Shak.