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Downcast vs Wretched - What's the difference?

downcast | wretched | Related terms |

Downcast is a related term of wretched.


In obsolete|lang=en terms the difference between downcast and wretched

is that downcast is (obsolete) to cast or throw up; to turn upward while wretched is (obsolete) hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.

As adjectives the difference between downcast and wretched

is that downcast is (of eyes) looking downwards while wretched is very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting.

As a noun downcast

is (computing) a cast from supertype to subtype.

As a verb downcast

is (obsolete) to cast or throw up; to turn upward.

downcast

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (of eyes) Looking downwards.
  • * Dryden
    • 'Tis love, said she; and then my downcast eyes, / And guilty dumbness, witnessed my surprise.
  • (of a person) Feeling despondent.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (computing) A cast from supertype to subtype.
  • (obsolete) A melancholy look.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
    • That downcast of thine eye.
  • (mining) A ventilating shaft down which the air passes in circulating through a mine.

    • Verb

  • (obsolete) To cast or throw up; to turn upward.
  • (Scotland) To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
  • (computing) To cast from supertype to subtype.

    • wretched

    English

    (Webster 1913)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Very miserable; sunk in, or accompanied by, deep affliction or distress, as from want, anxiety, or grief; calamitous; woeful; very afflicting.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1918, author=(w)
    • , title=Creatures That Once Were Men, and other stories, chapter=4 citation , passage=As for me, I felt wretched and helpless, in the darkness, surrounded with angry waves, whose noise deafened me.}}
  • Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1864, author=(Fyodor Dostoyevsky), title=Notes from Underground, chapter=1
    • citation , passage=My room is a wretched , horrid one in the outskirts of the town.}}
  • *, chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.}}
  • * , Episode 16
    • All those wretched quarrels, in his humble opinion, stirring up bad blood, from some bump of combativeness or gland of some kind, erroneously supposed to be about a punctilio of honour and a flag,.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=April 11, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
    • , title= Liverpool 3-0 Man City , passage=Mario Balotelli replaced Tevez but his contribution was so negligible that he suffered the indignity of being substituted himself as time ran out, a development that encapsulated a wretched 90 minutes for City and boss Roberto Mancini. }}
  • (obsolete) Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.

    • Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "wretched" is often applied: woman, state, life, condition, creature, man, excess, person, place, world, being, situation, weather, slave, animal, city, village, health, house, town.

    Quotations

    * To what wretched state reserved! Milton * Wretched ungratefulness . Sir Philip Sidney * Wrechet World King Lear

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * wretchedness

    Related terms

    * wretch

    External links

    * *