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.

Adjective

(en adjective)

(obsolete) Undisciplined, unruly; not able to be controlled.

* 1605 , William Shakespeare, King Lear , IV.1:

As Flies to wanton Boyes are we to th' Gods, / They kill us for their sport.

Lewd, immoral; sexually open, unchaste.

* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones :

if wenches will hang out lures for fellows, it is no matter what they suffer: I detest such creatures; and it would be much better for them that their faces had been seamed with the smallpox: but I must confess I never saw any of this wanton behaviour in poor Jenny [...].

* 1874 , Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd :

I know I ought never to have dreamt of sending that valentine—forgive me, sir—it was a wanton thing which no woman with any self-respect should have done.

* 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.21:

People should not marry too young, because, if they do, the children will be weak and female, the wives will become wanton , and the husbands stunted in their growth.

(obsolete) Playful, sportive; being merry or carefree (often used figuratively).

* 1776 , Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , vol. 1:

The grave simplicity of the philosopher was ill calculated to engage her wanton levity, of to fix that unbounded passion for variety, which often discovered personal merit in the meanest of mankind.

(obsolete) Self-indulgent, fond of excess; luxurious.

* 1776 , Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations , Book I:

the market price will rise more or less above the natural price, according as either the greatness of the deficiency, or the wealth and wanton luxury of the competitors, happen to animate more or less the eagerness of the competition.

Capricious, reckless of morality, justice etc.; acting without regard for the law or the well-being of others; gratuitous.

* 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility :

Edward himself, now thoroughly enlightened on her character, had no scruple in believing her capable of the utmost meanness of wanton ill-nature.

* 2009 , Ben White, The Guardian , 10 Aug 2009:

these developments in Gaza are a consequence of the state of siege that the tiny territory has been under – a society that has been fenced-in, starved, and seen its very fabric torn apart by unemployment and wanton military destruction.

(obsolete) Extravagant, unrestrained; excessive (of speech or thought).

* 1876 , John Ruskin, Letters , 19 Jan 1876:

But do not think it argues change of temper since I wrote the Frère review, or a wanton praise of one man and blame of another.