- [uncountable] great physical or mental pain synonym distress
- Fame brought her nothing but misery.
Extra ExamplesTopics Feelingsc1- He was too wrapped in misery to reply.
- Her misery was made complete when she was separated from her children.
- I sank deeper into my misery.
- The giant-killers heaped more misery on the home team.
- The money brought him nothing but misery.
- This financial blow inflicts more misery on the community.
- These unscrupulous landlords create untold misery for their tenants.
- The pandemic brought untold misery to affected families in urban and rural areas.
- War has now added to the misery of these starving people.
- ways to alleviate human misery
- The bad news had plunged him into abject misery.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- abject
- great
- real
- …
- be full of
- endure
- feel
- …
- misery of
- make somebody’s life a misery
- [uncountable] very poor living conditions synonym poverty
- The vast majority of the population lives in utter misery.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- abject
- great
- real
- …
- be full of
- endure
- feel
- …
- misery of
- make somebody’s life a misery
- [countable] something that causes great physical or mental pain
- the miseries of unemployment
- the sheer misery of homelessness
- the country's economic misery
- [countable] (British English, informal) a person who is always unhappy and complaining
- Don't be such an old misery!
- Old misery guts here doesn’t want to go out.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Old French miserie, from Latin miseria, from miser ‘wretched’.
Idioms
See misery in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarymake somebody’s life a misery
- to behave in a way that makes somebody else feel very unhappy
- My old boss used to make my life a misery.
- His constant criticism made her life a misery.
put an animal, a bird, etc. out of its misery
- to kill a creature because it has an illness or injury that cannot be treated
- In the end we asked the vet to put the poor creature out of its misery.
put somebody out of their misery
- (informal) to stop somebody worrying by telling them something that they are anxious to know
- Put me out of my misery—did I pass or didn't I?
- Oh, put her out of her misery—tell her who won.
Check pronunciation:
misery