different between wounded vs wretched

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wu?nd?d/
• Hyphenation: wound?ed

Verb

wounded

1. simple past tense and past participle of wound
   • 1913: Valmiki, The Ramayana, (translated by Sister Nivedita and Ananda Coomaraswamy)

     Nila, Agni's son, brandishing an uptorn tree, rushed on Prahasta; but he wounded the monkey with showers of arows.

Adjective

wounded

1. Suffering from a wound, especially one acquired in battle from a weapon, such as a gun or a knife.

   A wounded soldier.

   The wounded lay on stretchers waiting for surgery.

   Every single hospital was taking in wounded from the front.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:

     […] he was deadly pale, and the blood-stained bandage round his head told that he had recently been wounded, and still more recently dressed.

2. (figuratively) Suffering from an emotional injury.

   My wounded pride never recovered from her rejection.

3. (physics) Of a particle: having undergone an inelastic collision.

   a wounded nucleon

Synonyms

• (suffering from a wound): hurt, imbrued, injured; see also Thesaurus:wounded
• (suffering from an emotional injury): damaged, hurt, traumatised
• (having undergone an inelastic collision):

Derived terms

• walking wounded

Translations

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.