Wiktionary

woebegone

English

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Etymology

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From Old English wābegān (“beset by woe”), from wā (“woe”) begān (“to beset, to surround”). Equivalent to woe ‎ begone (past participle of bego).

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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woebegone (comparative more woebegone, superlative most woebegone)

  1. In a deplorable state.
    Synonyms: dilapidated, derelict, godforsaken, ramshackle, rundown, tumbledown
    • 2010 April 27, Howard Beck, “Russian Billionaire Is White Knight for the Nets”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      The 44-year-old Prokhorov, the second-richest man in Russia, is expected to assume control of the woebegone Nets within the next few weeks.
  2. Filled with or deeply affected by woe.
    Synonyms: sad, lamentable; see also Thesaurus:sad
    • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 47, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
      Pen and Miss Bolton were hard by listening to the same concert, and the latter remarked, and Pen laughed at Mr. Foker’s woebegone face.
      Fanny asked what it was that made that odd-looking little man so dismal? “I think he is crossed in love!” Pen said.
    • 1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Penguin, published 1976, →OCLC, page 29:
      When he was finished, as such, he was wringing wet, and now he had to edge and shimmy his way back, and with a most woebegone look, and everybody laughing, except the sad blond boy, and the Minnesotans roaring in the cab.
    • 2024 October 23, Jacob Oller, “Clay weepy Memoir Of A Snail crawls through a gauntlet of misery”, in AV Club‎[2]:
      The woebegone children have their aspirations slowly snuffed. Grace’s artistic dreams (of animation, of course) are punctured by her isolated existence; Gilbert’s pyrophilia is smothered by religious extremism.

Derived terms

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Translations

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