Noun

(es)

An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.

*{{quote-book

, year=1742 , author=Henry Fielding , title=Joseph Andrews , chapter=12 citation , passage=The poor wretch , who lay motionless a long time, just began to recover his senses as a stage-coach came by.}}

*{{quote-book

, year=1789 , author=Watkin Tench , title=The Expedition to Botany Bay , chapter=14 citation , passage=The four unhappy wretches labouring under sentence of banishment were freed from their fetters, to rejoin their former society; and three days given as holidays to every convict in the colony.}}

An unpleasant, annoying person.

*{{quote-book

, year=1740 , author=Samuel Richardson , title=Pamela , chapter=71 citation , passage=Swear to me but, thou bold wretch ! said she, swear to me, that Pamela Andrews is really and truly thy lawful wife, without sham, without deceit, without double-meaning; and I know what I have to say!}}

*{{quote-book

, year=1823 , author=Walter Scott , title=Saint Ronan's Well , chapter=32 citation , passage=I asked that selfish wretch , Winterblossom, to walk down with me to view her distress, and the heartless beast told me he was afraid of infection!}}

(archaic) An exile. (rfex)

Noun

(en noun)

(informal) A man, a fellow; an ordinary man, a man on the street.

* 1930 , , 2006, Overlook Press, page 235,

The door flew open, and there was a bloke' with spectacles on his face and all round the spectacles an expression of strained anguish. A ' bloke with a secret sorrow.

* 1931 , , lyrics of 1930, 31 and 33 versions,

She messed around with a bloke named Smoky.

* 1958 , , page 281,

It was a Cockney bloke' who had never seen a cow till he came inside. Cragg said it took some ' blokes like that, and city fellows are the worse.

* 2000 , Elizabeth Young, Asking for Trouble , page 19,

As her current bloke was turning out better than expected, I didn't see much of her lately.

(UK) a man who behaves in a particularly laddish or overtly heterosexual manner.

An anglophone man.

(Australia) An exemplar of a certain masculine, independent male archetype.

* 2000 May 5, Belinda Luscombe, “ Cinema: Of Mad Max and Madder Maximus”, Time :

‘The Bloke'’ is a certain kind of Australian or New Zealand male. ¶ Most of all, the ' Bloke does not whinge.