ˈmiserableness
[-ness.]
1. The quality or condition of being miserable; wretchedness, miserable unhappiness.
| 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage i. xiii. (1614) 74 He found a miserable death, where others with miserablenesse seeke a blessed life. 1701 Collier M. Anton. (1726) 178 Does any natural defect force you upon grumbling, miserableness, or laying your faults upon your constitution. 1830 Coleridge Lett. (1895) 751 During my long chain of bodily miserablenesses. 1890 Spectator 5 July, ‘My God! what a genius I had when I wrote that book’, said Swift, half-mad and wholly miserable... Wordsworth, without any miserableness or despair, was..of the same opinion. |
† 2. Miserliness, niggardliness, stinginess. Obs.
| 1522 Skelton Why nat to Court 1029 Suche gredynesse, Suche nedynesse, Myserablenesse, With wretchydnesse. 1641 Quarles Enchyr. ii. xvii, It is lesse reproach, by miserablenesse, to preserve the popular love, than by liberality to deserve the private thanks. 1681–6 J. Scott Chr. Life ii. iv. §3 Wks. 1718 I. 289 His Prosperity either shrivels him into Miserableness, or melts him into Luxury. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Miserableness, Covetousness, Niggardliness, Stinginess. |
3. Wretched or mean character or condition.
| 1633 Bp. Morton Disch. 5 Imputations 199 To the end that you may see the miserablenesse of your Cause, which must be supported by such Frauds..as his have beene. |