WOE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Woe

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/woʊ/ Listen

noun

Woe n. (Formerly written also wo)

Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity. "Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took." "(They) weep each other's woe."

A curse; a malediction. "Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?" Note: Woe is used in denunciation, and in exclamations of sorrow. " Woe is me! for I am undone." "O! woe were us alive (i.e., in life)." "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!"

Woe worth, Woe be to. See Worth, v. i. "Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, That costs thy life, my gallant gray!"

adjective

Woe adj. Woeful; sorrowful. (Obs.) "His clerk was woe to do that deed." "Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed." "And looking up he waxed wondrous woe."

See images of 'Woe'

Etymology of 'Woe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Woe" Quotes from Famous Books

... vain poor sable Son of Woe, Thou seek'st a tender Ear; In vain thy Tears with Anguish flow, For Mercy dwells not here: From Cannibals thou fly'st in vain, Lawyers less Quarter give; The first won't eat you till you're slain, The last will ...

— The Merry-Thought: or the Glass-Window and Bog-House Miscellany - Parts 2, 3 and 4 • Hurlo Thrumbo (pseudonym)

... man's relation to sin should be uncompromising. He used vigorous language in regard to sin. He said, "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh! Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt ...

— Studies in the Life of the Christian • Henry T. Sell

... thousand Indians taken, less than half had survived. Of the Spaniards only eighty came back, and these so worn and broken that many of them never fully recovered from their sufferings. Thus in suffering and woe ended the famous expedition ...

— Historical Tales - The Romance of Reality - Volume III • Charles Morris

... of woe, in which, instead of saying much himself, the poet informs us what the ancients would have said on such ...

— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... matter of sacrificing foetal life is as insatiable as a pack of hungry wolves. Woe to any one of you if he begins to yield to its cravings; there is no telling where he will stop. In proof of my statement, let me read to you an extract from a lecture on Obstetrics, delivered by ...

— Moral Principles and Medical Practice - The Basis of Medical Jurisprudence • Charles Coppens

More quotes...