hapless vs miserable what difference
what is difference between hapless and miserable
English
Etymology
From about 1400, from hap (“luck”) + -less.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈhæplɪs/
Adjective
hapless (comparative more hapless, superlative most hapless)
- Very unlucky; ill-fated.
- 1914, John Galsworthy, The Mob, act 1:
- My dear friend, are you to become that hapless kind of outcast, a champion of lost causes?
- 2008, Harriet Barovick, “Detroit The Lost Season,” Time, 31 Dec.:
- The hapless squad, which was outscored 517-268 in 2008, became the first in league history to go 0-16.
- 1914, John Galsworthy, The Mob, act 1:
- Devoid of talent or skill.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:hapless.
Derived terms
- haplessly
- haplessness
Translations
Anagrams
- phasels, plashes, shpeals
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French miserable, from Old French, from Latin miserabilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹəbəl/
Adjective
miserable (comparative miserabler or more miserable, superlative miserablest or most miserable)
- In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.
- Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
- Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless.
- Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible.
- (obsolete) Causing unhappiness or misery.
- c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Act III, scene i:
- For what’s more miserable than discontent?
- c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Act III, scene i:
- (obsolete) Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Hooker to this entry?)
Usage notes
- Nouns to which “miserable” is often applied: life, condition, state, situation, day, time, creature, person, child, failure, place, world, season, year, week, experience, feeling, work, town, city, wage, job, case, excuse, dog.
Synonyms
- (in a state of misery): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
- (very bad (at)): See Thesaurus:unskilled
- (wretched): See Thesaurus:despicable or Thesaurus:insignificant
- (causing unhappiness): See Thesaurus:lamentable
- (miserly): See Thesaurus:stingy or Thesaurus:greedy
Derived terms
Related terms
- miser
- misery
Translations
Noun
miserable (plural miserables)
- A miserable person; a wretch.
- 1838, The Foreign Quarterly Review (volume 21, page 181)
- Dona Carmen repaired to the balcony to chat and jest with, and at, these miserables, who stopped before the door to rest in their progress. All pretended poverty while literally groaning under the weight of their riches.
- 2003, Richard C. Trexler, Reliving Golgotha: The Passion Play of Iztapalapa (pages 46-47)
- The charge that those who played Jesus in these representations were treated badly by the plays’ Jews and Romans left one commissioner cold: in his view, these miserables were beaten much less severely by the players than they were by their actual lords or curacas.
- 1838, The Foreign Quarterly Review (volume 21, page 181)
- (informal, in the plural, with definite article) A state of misery or melancholy.
- 1984, Barbara Wernecke Durkin, Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can’t You Dance the Polka? (page 10)
- By 3:00 P.M. both DeeDee and Sandra’s pants were thoroughly soaked, and this unhappy circumstance gave DeeDee a bad case of the miserables.
- 1984, Barbara Wernecke Durkin, Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can’t You Dance the Polka? (page 10)
Anagrams
- marbelise, marbleise
Catalan
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin miserābilis.
Pronunciation
- (Balearic, Central) IPA(key): /mi.zəˈɾa.blə/
- (Valencian) IPA(key): /mi.zeˈɾa.ble/
Adjective
miserable (masculine and feminine plural miserables)
- miserable
Spanish
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin miserābilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /miseˈɾable/, [mi.seˈɾa.β̞le]
Adjective
miserable (plural miserables)
- miserable
- poor
- greedy, stingy
Related terms
- mísero
- miseria
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