Poor vs Wretched - What's the difference?
poor | wretched | Synonyms |
With little or no possessions or money.
:
Of low quality.
:
*, chapter=10
, title= To be pitied.
:
*
*: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.
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=15 Deficient in a specified way.
:
Inadequate, insufficient.
:
*(w) (1600-1666)
*:That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.
Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.
*(Bible), (w) v.3
*:Blessed are the poor in spirit.
(with "the") Those who have little or no possessions or money, taken as a group.
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
Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable.
* {{quote-book, year=1864, author=(Fyodor Dostoyevsky), title=Notes from Underground, chapter=1
*, chapter=17
, title= * , Episode 16
* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=April 11, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
, title= (obsolete) Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.
As adjectives the difference between poor and wretched
is that poor is with little or no possessions or money 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 poor
is with "the" Those who have little or no possessions or money, taken as a group.poor
English
Adjective
(er)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}
citation, passage=Mr. Campion sighed. βPoor man,β he said. βHe sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.β}}
Synonyms
* (little or no possessions) impoverished, wealthless, * (of low quality) inferior * (to be pitied) pitiable, * See also * See alsoAntonyms
* (having little or no possessions) rich * (of low quality) good * (deficient in a specified way) rich * (inadequate) adequateDerived terms
* poor man's * dirt poor * house poor * land poor * piss-poor * poor as a church mouse * poor box * poorhouse * poor power * poor relationNoun
(en-plural noun)- The poor are always with us.
Statistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----wretched
English
(Webster 1913)Adjective
(en-adj)citation, passage=As for me, I felt wretched and helpless, in the darkness, surrounded with angry waves, whose noise deafened me.}}
citation, passage=My room is a wretched , horrid one in the outskirts of the town.}}
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.}}
- 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,.
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. }}