woe
nounadjectiveinterjectionnounattested in dialogue
- United Kingdom//wəʊ//
- United States//woʊ//
Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
noun
- 1
Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
Oh, woe is me!
Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe, she took.
Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose / That well-known name awakens all my woes.
But if there was a competition between a ſick family and a new broach, the broach was ſure to carry the day. This would not have been the caſe, had they been habituated to viſit themſelves the abodes of penury and woe.
- 2
Calamity, trouble.
And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
Don't let the little woes of life harm you / Let the joy in the life you lead / Let it charm you / Let it charm you now
- 3
A curse; a malediction.
Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?
Etymology
From Middle English wo, woo, from Old English wā, wǣ, from Proto-West Germanic *wai (interjection), from Proto-Germanic *wai (“woe!”, interjection), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (“oh!; ah!; woe!; alas!”, interjection). Cognates Cognate with Scots wae (“woe”), Cimbrian bèa (“woe!”), Dutch wee (“nauseating”), German Weh, Wehe (“misery, woe; pain”), Yiddish וויי (vey, “pain; woe”), Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish ve (“woe”), Icelandic væl (“cry, wail”), væla (“to cry, wail; to complain”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹 (wai, “woe!”); also Cornish gew, go (“woe!”), Welsh gwae (“misery, woe”), Catalan, Italian, and Portuguese guai (“woe!”), Ladino guay, גואי (“woe”), Latin vae (“woe”), Romanian vai (“woe”), Spanish guay (“way”), Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí, “woe!”), Albanian vaj (“woe!”), Latvian vai (“oh!”), Bulgarian уви́ (uví, “alas”), Russian увы́ (uvý, “alas!”), Serbo-Croatian авај, avaj (“alas!”), Armenian վայ (vay, “sorrow, woe”), Persian وای (vây, “woe”).
adjective
- 1
obsoleteWoeful; sorrowful
hys clerk was wo to do þat dede
And looking vp, when as his shield he lakt, / And sword saw not, he wexed wondrous woe
Prospero: I am woe for't, Sir.
But long they waited, and longer still, / With doubt and muckle pain, / But woe were the hearts of his brethren, / For he came not back again.
interjection
- 1
archaicAn exclamation of grief.
Miranda: O woe, the day.
noun
- 1
slangA close friend; a nigga, homie or bro.
Forms
- plural
- woes
- comparative
- more woe
- superlative
- most woe
woe · Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
woke · Awake: conscious and not asleep.woken · To make or become woke or woker.wolf · Canis lupus; the largest wild member of the canine subfamily.