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One who misuses. "Wretched misusers of language." Coleridge.

Any copy, or resemblance, more or less exact. Thou seest thy wretched brother die, Who was the model of thy father's life. Shak.

c life; monastic usage or customs; -- now usually applied by way of reproach. Miters, and wretched dead mediæval monkeries. Carlyle.

he better of; to surmount; to conquer; to subdue; as, to overcome enemies in battle. This wretched woman overcome Of anguish, rather than of crime, hath been. Spenser.

To spare; to be niggardly; to be covetous. Gower. The wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare. Franklin. To pinch at, to find fault with; to take exception to. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. Spenser. The most piteous tale of Lear. Shak.

ion; miserable; lamentable; piteous; as, pitiable persons; a pitiable condition; pitiable wretchedness.

An arrant coward; a dastard; a craven; a mean-spirited wretch. Shak.

n of character; dignified bearing; proud delight; -- in a good sense. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride. Goldsmith. A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants. Macaulay.

, or decency; openly and shamelessly immoral or vicious; dissolute; as, profligate man or wretch. A race more profligate than we. Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate muse. Dryden.

, as well as mechanical, it is easier to pull down than build up." Howell. " To raise the wretched, and pull down the proud." Roscommon. To pull a finch. See under Finch. To pull off, take or draw off.

To incite; to entice; to urge; to constrain; to oblige. These wretches put us upon all mischief. Swift. Put me not use the carnal weapon in my own defense. Sir W. Scott. Thank him who puts me, loath, to this revenge. Milton.

A vile, dissolute wretch. [Obs.] Milton.

A mean wretch. [Obs.] Shak.

A low, mean wretch [Written also rascalion.]

One who yields in combat, and begs for mercy; a mean-spirited, cowardly wretch. Blackstone. You are all recreants and dastards! Shak.

A low, vulgar, brutal, foul-mouthed wretch; a lewd fellow. Spenser. Pope. Ribald was almost a class name in the feudal system . . . He was his patron's parasite, bulldog, and tool . . . It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal. Earle.

multuous crowd; a mob; hence, the rabble; the herd of common people. the endless routs of wretched thralls. Spenser. The ringleader and head of all this rout. Shak. Nor do I name of men the common rout. Milton.

A fugitive; a vagabond; an apostate; a renegade. See Renegade. Bunyan. Wretched runagates from the jail. De Quincey. Who has not been a runagate from duty Hare.

misery; distress; a pitiful. [Obs.] It had been hard this ruth for to see. Chaucer. With wretched miseries and woeful ruth. Spenser.