misery
part of speech
noun (misery, miseries)
meaning for a pupil
1) Great unhappiness or suffering, in body or mind. tree →
2) Very poor and hard living conditions: «they lived in misery». tree →
3) (UK, informal) A person who is always grumpy and complaining: «Don't be such a misery!» tree →
4) (idioms) «make someone's life a misery» (keep upsetting them); «put an animal out of its misery» (kill it kindly to end its suffering); «put someone out of their misery» (tell them news they are anxious to hear). tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories, misery describes deep sadness, loss or hard lives, like Victorian children working in factories. In everyday life people use it for small troubles jokingly: «the misery of Monday mornings». In history, war and poverty caused great misery. Phrases: «a life of misery», «misery guts» (UK, informal grumpy person), «make life a misery».
examples
- The war brought misery to millions of people. tree →
- The bully made her life a misery. tree →
- Don't be such a misery – come and play! tree →
- Come on, put me out of my misery and tell me the score! tree →
- The flood left the town in misery. tree →
- Grandad calls my brother a «misery guts» when he sulks. tree →
- Toothache is pure misery. tree →
- Charity groups work to end the misery of hunger. tree →
- Save my child from all that misery! tree →
note
Mostly uncountable, but «miseries» is used for different troubles. Adjective: miserable. Pronounced «MIZ-er-ee». Spelling: miser + y. A «miser» is a different word (someone who hates spending money). Not a maths word.
In the corpora
- Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.
- Wherewith is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul —
- For thou shalt forget thy misery; thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away;
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «misery» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.