Definitions for: Woe

[n] intense mournfulness
[n] misery resulting from affliction

Webster (1913) Definition: Woe, n. [OE. wo, wa, woo, AS. w[=a], interj.; akin to D.
wee, OS. & OHG. w[=e], G. weh, Icel. vei, Dan. vee, Sw. ve,
Goth. wai; cf. L. vae, Gr. ?. [root]128. Cf. Wail.]
[Formerly written also wo.]
1. Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad
instrument of all our woe, she took. --Milton.

[They] weep each other's woe. --Pope.

2. 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?
--South.

Note: Woe is used in denunciation, and in exclamations of
sorrow. `` Woe is me! for I am undone.'' --Isa. vi. 5.

O! woe were us alive [i.e., in life]. --Chaucer.

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! --Isa.
xlv. 9.

Woe worth, Woe be to. See Worth, v. i.

Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, That costs
thy life, my gallant gray! --Sir W.
Scott.

Woe, a.
Woeful; sorrowful. [Obs.]

His clerk was woe to do that deed. --Robert of
Brunne.

Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.
--Chaucer.

And looking up he waxed wondrous woe. --Spenser.

Synonyms: suffering, woefulness

See Also: misery, mournfulness, ruthfulness, sorrowfulness, wretchedness

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