Adjective

(en-adj)

Without humor or expression of happiness; grave in manner or disposition; earnest; thoughtful; solemn.

It was a surprise to see the captain, who had always seemed so serious , laugh so heartily.

Important; weighty; not trifling; leaving no room for play; needing great attention; critical.

This is a serious problem. We'll need our best experts.

Really intending what is said; being in earnest; not jesting or deceiving; meaningful.

After all these years, we're finally getting serious attention.

Adjective

(en-adj)

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.

*, chapter=7

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=With some of it on the south and more of it on the north of the great main thoroughfare that connects Aldgate and the East India Docks, St.?Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London.}}

* (George Bernard Shaw) (1856–1950)

*:The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.

Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent.

:

Wretched; worthless; mean.

:

(lb) Causing unhappiness or misery.

*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)

*:What's more miserable than discontent?

(lb) Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.

:(Hooker)