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Definition of "wretch" []

  • A miserable, unfortunate, or unhappy person. (noun)
  • A person regarded as base, mean, or despicable: "a stony adversary, an inhuman wretch” ( Shakespeare). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "wretch" in a sentence
  • "‘None of your business, but yes, that poxy wretch is my father and no, she’s not."
  • "Policemen filed in; one or two cases were tried and dismissed, the Malay witnesses trembling from head to foot, and then the wretch from the cage was brought in looking hardly human, as, from under his shaggy, unshaven hair and unplaited pigtail which hung over his chest, he cast furtive, frightened glances at the array before him."
  • "A wretch is to be hanged here for the crime this morning on his own confession, but it is believed that he was doomed to sacrifice himself by one of these societies, in order to screen the real murderers."