WOE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Woe

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/woʊ/ Listen

noun

Woe n. (Formerly written also wo)

Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity. "Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took." "(They) weep each other's woe."

A curse; a malediction. "Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?" Note: Woe is used in denunciation, and in exclamations of sorrow. " Woe is me! for I am undone." "O! woe were us alive (i.e., in life)." "Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker!"

Woe worth, Woe be to. See Worth, v. i. "Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, That costs thy life, my gallant gray!"

adjective

Woe adj. Woeful; sorrowful. (Obs.) "His clerk was woe to do that deed." "Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed." "And looking up he waxed wondrous woe."

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Etymology of 'Woe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Woe" Quotes from Famous Books

... "The weal or woe of the United Provinces for all time," he said, "is depending on the present transactions." Weigh well the reasons we urge, and make use of those which seem to you convincing. You know that the foe, according to his old deceitful manner, laid ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... dwells the good old farmer, Israel, In his ancestral home—a Puritan Who reads his Bible daily, loves his God, And lives serenely in the faith of Christ. For threescore years and ten his life has run Through varied scenes of happiness and woe; But, constant through the wide vicissitude, He has confessed the Giver of his joys, And kissed the hand that took them; and whene'er Bereavement has oppressed his soul with grief, Or sharp misfortune stung ...

— Bitter-Sweet • J. G. Holland

... long and weird catalogue of human miseries, I might have selected many individual instances more replete with essential suffering than any of these vast generalities of disaster. The true wretchedness, indeed—the ultimate woe——is particular, not diffuse. That the ghastly extremes of agony are endured by man the unit, and never by man the mass——for this let us ...

— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 2 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... writing down hurried directions and receiving a bit of money; but most desolate of all was the row of lads lined up near the station whose friends were gone, or had not come at all, and who had to stand and endure the woe of others. ...

— The Search • Grace Livingston Hill

... feel that I must go before you. That will tend to convince the wretched author of my woe that there is nothing blame-worthy in ...

— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

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