All 8 Uses of
wretched
in
Moby Dick
- Ha, Ishmael, muttered I, backing out, Wretched entertainment at the sign of 'The Trap!'†
Chpt 1-3 *wretched = miserable or very bad
- Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence; in vain essays his wretched smile.†
Chpt 7-9
- 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.†
Chpt 7-9
- 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.†
Chpt 16-18
- 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.†
Chpt 40-42
- 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.†
Chpt 112-114
- 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!†
Chpt 112-114
- as that for a time, the wretched father was plunged to the bottom of the cruellest perplexity;†
Chpt 127-129
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."