different between downcast vs miserable

English

Etymology

From Middle English *doun-casten, *adoun-casten (inferred from Middle English adoun-casting (“downcasting”), adoun-cast (“overthrow, destruction”)), modelled similarly to other constructions in Middle English (namely, Middle English adoun-throwen (“to throw down”), adoun-werpen (“to throw down”)), equivalent to down- +? cast.

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /?da?nkæst/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?da?nk??st/
• (verb)
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /da?n?kæst/
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /da?n?k??st/

Adjective

downcast (comparative more downcast, superlative most downcast)

1. (of eyes) Looking downwards.
   • 1717, John Dryden, Canace to Macareus

     'Tis love, said she; and then my downcast eyes, / And guilty dumbness, witness'd my surprise.

2. (of a person) Feeling despondent.

Translations

Noun

downcast (plural downcasts)

1. (computing) A cast from supertype to subtype.
2. (obsolete) A melancholy look.
   • 1619, Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, The Maid's Tragedy

     That downcast of thine eye.

3. (mining) A ventilating shaft down which the air passes in circulating through a mine.

Verb

downcast (third-person singular simple present downcasts, present participle downcasting, simple past and past participle downcast or downcasted)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To cast or throw down; to turn downward.
2. (transitive, Scotland) To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
3. (transitive, computing) To cast from supertype to subtype.

   Antonym: upcast

Anagrams

• cast down

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French miserable, from Old French, from Latin miserabilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?z(?)??b?l/

Adjective

miserable (comparative miserabler or more miserable, superlative miserablest or most miserable)

1. In a state of misery: very sad, ill, or poor.

   • Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
2. Very bad (at something); unskilled, incompetent; hopeless.

3. Wretched; worthless; mean; contemptible.

4. (obsolete) Causing unhappiness or misery.
   • c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Act III, scene i:

     For what's more miserable than discontent?

5. (obsolete) Avaricious; niggardly; miserly.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Hooker to this entry?)

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "miserable" is often applied: life, condition, state, situation, day, time, creature, person, child, failure, place, world, season, year, week, experience, feeling, work, town, city, wage, job, case, excuse, dog.

Synonyms

• (in a state of misery): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
• (very bad (at)): See Thesaurus:unskilled
• (wretched): See Thesaurus:despicable or Thesaurus:insignificant
• (causing unhappiness): See Thesaurus:lamentable
• (miserly): See Thesaurus:stingy or Thesaurus:greedy

Derived terms

Related terms

• miser
• misery

Translations

Noun

miserable (plural miserables)

1. A miserable person; a wretch.
   • 1838, The Foreign Quarterly Review (volume 21, page 181)

     Dona Carmen repaired to the balcony to chat and jest with, and at, these miserables, who stopped before the door to rest in their progress. All pretended poverty while literally groaning under the weight of their riches.

   • 2003, Richard C. Trexler, Reliving Golgotha: The Passion Play of Iztapalapa (pages 46-47)

     The charge that those who played Jesus in these representations were treated badly by the plays' Jews and Romans left one commissioner cold: in his view, these miserables were beaten much less severely by the players than they were by their actual lords or curacas.

2. (informal, in the plural, with definite article) A state of misery or melancholy.
   • 1984, Barbara Wernecke Durkin, Oh, You Dundalk Girls, Can't You Dance the Polka? (page 10)

     By 3:00 P.M. both DeeDee and Sandra's pants were thoroughly soaked, and this unhappy circumstance gave DeeDee a bad case of the miserables.

Anagrams

• marbelise, marbleise

Catalan

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin miser?bilis.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /mi.z???a.bl?/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /mi.ze??a.ble/

Adjective

miserable (masculine and feminine plural miserables)

1. miserable

Spanish

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin miser?bilis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mise??able/, [mi.se??a.??le]

Adjective

miserable (plural miserables)

1. miserable
2. poor
3. greedy, stingy

Related terms

• mísero
• miseria