different between chagrined vs wretched

English

Verb

chagrined

1. simple past tense and past participle of chagrin

Adjective

chagrined (comparative more chagrined, superlative most chagrined)

1. Feeling chagrin (at something); vexed; fretful.[First attested in the early 18^th century, replacing the adjective chagrin.]
   • 1769, Arthur Murphy, Genuine Memoirs of the Life and Adventures of the Celebrated Miss Ann Elliot, London: J. Fell & J. Roson, p. 92,^[1]

     […] she had nothing but paste ornaments about her; and therefore, observing her own diamonds on a celebrated courtezan, was so excessively, and indeed justly chagrined, that she left the play-house before the representation was concluded.

   • 1835, Edward Allan Poe, “Hans Phaall—A Tale” in Southern Literary Messenger, June, 1835, Volume I, No. 10, p. 569,^[2]

     […] I felt in both my breeches pockets, and missing therefrom a set of tablets and a tooth-pick case, I endeavored to account for their disappearance, and, not being able to do so, felt inexpressibly chagrined.

   • 1921, Harold Hunter Armstrong as Henry G. Aikman, Zell, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter Two, p. 115,^[3]

     “She’ll pay it,” Mr. O’Dell told Mr. Jenks with the chagrined expression of a restrained bulldog.

   • 2003, Don DeLillo, Cosmopolis, New York: Scribner, 2004, Part Two, p. 129,^[4]

     He searched his pockets for money, feeling a little foolish, a little chagrined, having made and lost sums that could colonize a planet, but the woman was moving up the street on shoes with flapping soles and there were no bills or coins in any case to find inside his pants, or documents of any kind.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wrecched, equivalent to wretch +? -ed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???t??d/

Adjective

wretched (comparative wretcheder or more wretched, superlative wretchedest or most wretched)

1. Very miserable; feeling deep affliction or distress.

   I felt wretched after my wife died.
2. Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable.

   The street was full of wretched beggars dressed in rags.
3. (obsolete) Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.
4. (informal) Used to express dislike of or annoyance towards the mentioned thing.

   Will you please stop playing that wretched trombone!

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "wretched" is often applied: woman, state, life, condition, creature, man, excess, person, place, world, being, situation, weather, slave, animal, city, village, health, house, town.

Synonyms

• (very miserable): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
• (worthless): See Thesaurus:insignificant
• (hatefully contemptible): See Thesaurus:despicable

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• wretched in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• wretched in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “wretched”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t?t/
• Rhymes: -?t?t

Verb

wretched

1. Misspelling of retched.