[f. as prec. + -NESS.] The state or quality of being wretched.
1. A condition of discomfort or distress caused by privation, poverty, misfortune, adversity, or the like; great misery or unhappiness.
In very frequent use from c. 1375.
α. c. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 6102. Þe day of wrethe and of wrechednes.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Manciple’s T., 67. Yet hath this brid … Leuere in a fforest that is rude and coold Goon ete wormes, and swich wrecchednesse.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., vii. 19. Thenne … comyth aȝen … our lord, whenne þat he hath pyte of our wretchidnesse.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 448. Yf thou were in the abysmes of wrecchidnes and myseryes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 37. He cast hym out into this vale of mysery and wretchednes.
1596. Spenser, State Irel., Wks. (Globe), 614/1. When they are weary of warres, and brought downe to extreeme wretchedness.
1605. Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 61. Is wretchednesse depriu’d that benefit To end it selfe by death?
1679. Dryden, Pref. to Troil. & Cress., ad fin. Consider the wretchedness of his condition.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., i. 229. Thought, busy thought!… Strays (wretched rover!) o’er the pleasing Past; In quest of wretchedness perversely strays.
1760. D. Webb, Inq. Beauties of Painting, vii. 161. The Philoctetes of Parrhasius is a fine image of hopeless wretchedness, of consuming grief.
1820. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1850), 302. The manifold wretchedness to which the poor Irish tenant is liable.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, xlv. The great manufacturing town reeking with lean misery and hungry wretchedness.
1887. Bruce Smith, Liberty & Liberalism, 615. What we call ‘wretchedness, unhappiness, and sin’ are the inevitable results of the gap which does … exist between our powers and our aspirations.
β. a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, ii. 11. Þe dred of god is noght of wricchidnes bot of ioy.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), xxvi. 124. Þai liffe with grete wricchedness and scantness.
γ. c. 1480. Henryson, Prais of Aige, 12. Wrachitness his [= has] turnyt al fra weil to vo.
b. A cause or occasion of misery.
1382. Wyclif, James v. 1. Do now, ȝe riche men, wepe ȝe, ȝoulynge in ȝoure wrecchidnessis that shulen come to ȝou.
c. 1410. Lanterne of Liȝt, 49. Þis a sorowful vanite & a greete wrecchidnes.
c. 1450. Myrr. our Ladye, II. 242. How grete tormentes & how grete wretchednesses they gather and hepe to theyr owne sowles.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. I. ii. Call not the Past Time, with all its confused wretchednesses, a lost one.
1893. Amer. Mission. (N.Y.), Dec., 436. To these vices … is added now a new wretchedness,… the vice of drunkenness.
2. The condition or character of being base or vile, odious or contemptible; despicableness, meanness, badness.
13[?]. Cursor M., 10887 (Gött.). Widuten sinne and wrecchednes Sal þu be mayden as þu es. Ibid., 17288 + 273. Als mikel os scho loued bifore Þe dele & wricchednes, Als mikel … loued scho crist thoru hir grete godenes.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 7. Ȝif it so befalle þat any of þe bretherhede falle in pouerte … so it be nat on hymselue along, thorwȝ his owne wrecchednesse.
c. 1450. Lovelich, Grail, xliii. 413. For more they loven wrechchednesse Thanne hevenely thing.
c. 1475. Bk. Noblesse (Roxb.), 51. Therfor ye oughte … conceyve the gret adversite that fallithe to us is … only for synne and wrecchidnes.
1513. Bradshaw, St. Werburge, II. 2010. For baudy balades full of wretchednes.
1546. Langley, trans. Pol. Verg. de Invent., IV. i. 81 b. They … returned to their old wretchednes and sinful abhominacions.
1617. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Pref., Wks. (1639), Cj. Censuring other men in many things, but not perceiving their own wretchedness at all.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. 1851, IV. 345. The guilt of his own wretchednes. Ibid. (1649), Eikon., Pref. [Their] Pulpit-stuffe … hath bin the … perpetuall infusion of servility and wretchedness to all thir hearers.
1755. Johnson, Wretchedness,… despicableness.
† b. A base or reprehensible action; a vicious trait, deed, etc. Obs.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 171. Þei … tellen lesyngis & wrecchidnessis of synnis.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Frankl. T., 795. [To] doon so heigh a cherlyssh wrecchednesse Agayns franchise and alle gentillesse.
† 3. Sc. The state or condition of being miserly or parsimonious; niggardliness, miserliness. Obs.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, VIII. 526. Thai sawft na Sotheroun for thair gret riches; Off sic koffre he callit bot wretchitnes.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 1857. Wrechitnes richt so … Haith Realmys maid ful desolat & barre.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxi. 4. He that hes gold and grit richess,… And levis in to wrechitness, He wirkis sorrow to him sell.
4. The state or condition of being mean, sorry or paltry; inferiority, worthlessness.
1810. Naval Chron., XXIII. 39. His seventh assertion … is … a curious specimen of the wretchedness of his information.
1828–32. Webster, s.v., The wretchedness of a performance.
5. The fact or character of being uncomfortable or unpleasant; discomfort.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Streets—Night. After a little conversation about the wretchedness of the weather.
1888. Harper’s Mag., Oct., 782. The gray wretcbedness of the afternoon was a fit prelude to Barra.
