8 uses
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Definition
very bad
in various senses, including:
- unfortunate or miserable — as in "wretched prisoners sleeping on the cold floor"
- of poor quality — as in "wretched roads"
- morally bad — as in "The wretched woman stole his wallet."
- Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the sign of 'The Trap!'Chapters 1-3 — Loomings; The Carpet-Bag; The Spouter-Inn (32% in)
- Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence; in vain essays his wretched smile.Chapters 7-9 — The Chapel; The Pulpit; The Sermon (52% in)
- For when Jonah, not yet supplicating God for mercy, since he but too well knew the darkness of his deserts,—when wretched Jonah cries out to them to take him and cast him forth into the sea, for he knew that for HIS sake this great tempest was upon them; they mercifully turn from him, and seek by other means to save the ship.Chapters 7-9 — The Chapel; The Pulpit; The Sermon (79% in)
- I had blown out the candle; and the mere thought of Queequeg—not four feet off—sitting there in that uneasy position, stark alone in the cold and dark; this made me really wretched.Chapters 16-18 — The Ship; The Ramadan; His Mark (77% in)
- ...hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colourless in itself, and if operating without medium upon matter, would touch all objects, even tulips and roses, with its own blank tinge—pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us a leper; and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear coloured and colouring glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him.Chapters 40-42 — Midnight, Forecastle; Moby Dick; The Whiteness of the Whale (**% in)
- And to the importunity of their persisted questionings he had finally given in; and so it came to pass that every one now knew the shameful story of his wretched fate.Chapters 112-114 — The Blacksmith; The Forge; The Gilder (9% in)
- Oh, Pip! thy wretched laugh, thy idle but unresting eye; all thy strange mummeries not unmeaningly blended with the black tragedy of the melancholy ship, and mocked it!Chapters 112-114 — The Blacksmith; The Forge; The Gilder (76% in)
- ...of the missing boat's crew; but among the number of the other boat's crews, at the same time, but on the other hand, separated from the ship during the dark vicissitudes of the chase, there had been still another son; as that for a time, the wretched father was plunged to the bottom of the cruellest perplexity; which was only solved for him by his chief mate's instinctively adopting the ordinary procedure of a whale-ship in such emergencies, that is, when placed between jeopardized but...Chapters 127-129 — The Deck; The Pequod meets the Rachel; The Cabin—Ahab and Pip (59% in)
There are no more uses of "wretched" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)