woeful

/ˈwoʊfəl/

Something woeful is full of sadness, like the woeful little boy who can't find the stuffed bunny he needs to fall asleep.

Use the adjective woeful for people or things affected by misery or sorrow. A woeful expression on your face shows you're sad, and a woeful performance in the big kickball game means your team did so badly that you feel miserable about it. Woeful comes from woe, "great sorrow," and its source, the Old English interjection wa. This ancient woeful expression is still used in many languages today.

Definitions of woeful

1. adjective

   affected by or full of grief
   synonyms: woebegone

   sorrowful

   experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss
2. adjective

   of very poor quality or condition
   “woeful treatment of the accused”

   “woeful errors of judgment”

   synonyms: deplorable, execrable, miserable, wretched

   inferior

   of low or inferior quality