All 31 Uses of

wretched

in

Of Human Bondage

Suddenly it seemed to him that his life was a dream, his mother's death, and the life at the vicarage, and these two wretched days at school, and he would awake in the morning and be back again at home.†
Chpt 11-12

wretched = miserable or very bad

He was so young and had so few friends that immortality had no particular attractions for him, and he was able without trouble to give up belief in it; but there was one thing which made him wretched; he told himself that he was unreasonable, he tried to laugh himself out of such pathos; but the tears really came to his eyes when he thought that he would never see again the beautiful mother whose love for him had grown more precious as the years since her death passed on.†
Chpt 27-28

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded.†
Chpt 29-30

He wished now that he had never undertaken the siege of Miss Wilkinson's virtue; the first fortnight had been so jolly, and now he was wretched; but he was determined not to give in, he would never respect himself again if he did, and he made up his mind irrevocably that the next night he would kiss her without fail.†
Chpt 33-34

He was quite excited at the thought of talking his fill with someone, and he was wretched when Hayward wrote to say that the spring was lovelier than ever he had known it in Italy, and he could not bear to tear himself away.†
Chpt 37-38

Philip smiled, for it leaped to one's eyes that the artist in life had produced no more than a wretched daub.†
Chpt 45-46

You are amused because I talk in this fashion and you know that I am poor and live in an attic with a vulgar trollop who deceives me with hair-dressers and garcons de cafe; I translate wretched books for the British public, and write articles upon contemptible pictures which deserve not even to be abused.†
Chpt 45-46

You think pleasure is only of the senses; the wretched slaves who manufactured your morality despised a satisfaction which they had small means of enjoying.†
Chpt 45-46

The wretched woman was hanging with a rope round her neck, which she had tied to a hook in the ceiling fixed by some previous tenant to hold up the curtains of the bed.†
Chpt 47-48

Philip thought that Cronshaw was look ing upon his own life; and perhaps he considered his youth with its bright hopes and the disappointments which wore out the radiancy; the wretched monotony of pleasure, and the black future.†
Chpt 49-50

Philip, too weak and wretched to resist, allowed Griffiths to wash his hands and face, his feet, his chest and back.†
Chpt 67-68

If I'd taken it seriously it would have made me perfectly wretched.'†
Chpt 71-72

Philip's mind was full of the stories he had heard of babyfarming and the ghouls who ill-treat the wretched children that selfish, cruel parents have put in their charge.†
Chpt 73-74

He went back to his rooms, but they filled him with horror, he had been so wretched in them; he tried once more to read Burton's book, but, as he read, he told himself again and again what a fool he had been; it was he who had made the suggestion that they should go away, he had offered the money, he had forced it upon them; he might have known what would happen when he introduced Griffiths to Mildred; his own vehement passion was enough to arouse the other's desire.†
Chpt 77-78

It was manifold and various; there were tears and laughter, happiness and woe; it was tedious and interesting and indifferent; it was as you saw it: it was tumultuous and passionate; it was grave; it was sad and comic; it was trivial; it was simple and complex; joy was there and despair; the love of mothers for their children, and of men for women; lust trailed itself through the rooms with leaden feet, punishing the guilty and the innocent, helpless wives and wretched children; drink seized men and women and cost its inevitable price; death sighed in these rooms; and the beginning of life, filling some poor girl with terror and shame, was diagnosed there.†
Chpt 81-82

One day Philip went to dine by arrangement at the wretched eating-house at which Cronshaw insisted on taking his meals, but Cronshaw did not appear.†
Chpt 83-84

He had not suspected that his face showed the dismay he felt at the sight of that horrible room and the wretched circumstances of the poor poet.†
Chpt 83-84

One or two tried to make friends with him, but he was too tired and too wretched to accept their advances.
Chpt 99-100 *

wretched = miserable

He saw himself going on with that life, first to the right, second on the left, madam, indefinitely; and having to be thankful if he was not sent away: the men who had gone to the war would be coming home soon, the firm had guaranteed to take them back, and this must mean that others would be sacked; he would have to stir himself even to keep the wretched post he had.†
Chpt 105-106

wretched = miserable or very bad

Forced to submit in silence to his superior's sarcasm, Mr. Sampson took it out of the assistants; and he rated the wretched fellow whose duty it was to dress the window.†
Chpt 105-106

Twice that woman had come into his life and made him wretched; she had no claim upon him; and yet, he knew not why, deep in his heart was a strange aching; it was that which, when he received her letter, had left him no peace till he obeyed her summons.†
Chpt 109-110

A few more months of that wretched life could matter nothing to the old man, but the few more months meant everything to him: he was getting to the end of his endurance, and when he thought of going back to work in the morning he shuddered with horror.†
Chpt 109-110

The black bag was a passport through wretched alleys and down foul-smelling courts into which a policeman was not ready to venture by himself.†
Chpt 113-114

He knew he would have no peace on his travels if he had the thought constantly with him that she was wretched.†
Chpt 121-122

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."