woesome

woesome

English

Etymology

From woe +‎ -some.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwəʊsəm/

Adjective

woesome (comparative more woesome, superlative most woesome)

1. Characterised or marked by woe; woeful
   • c. 1765, John Langhorne, Owen of Carron

     'But it will make thee much bewail, / And it will make thy fair eye swell—' / She said, and told the woesome tale, / As sooth as shepherdess might tell.

   • 2008, Frances Hodgson Burnett, The White People:

     I could not help seeing a woesome picture. “Poor little soul, with the blood pouring from her heart and her brown hair spread over her dead father's breast!”

   • 2011, Jan Tucker Mulligan, Smuggler's Legacy:

     Nicole caught her breath at the muffled, woesome sighs: Douanier-Lieutenant Peder LaMotte, Acting Capitaine of Concarneau, her love and her father's nemesis, was weeping.

   • 2014, Glenda Paisley, My Life in Poetry:

     To dissect my thoughts is a woesome tale [...]

   • 2016, Jack Kerouac, Desolation Angels:

     But here comes woesome old me and my maw down the yard with battered suitcases arriving almost like phantoms dripping from the sea.