Meaning & use
woebegone
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparableliteraryold-fashioned
Looking very sad, hopeless or miserable, often with a worn-out appearance.
Grammar: Used before a noun or after a linking verb: a woebegone look, he looked woebegone.
Patterns
- look woebegone
- a woebegone expression
The puppy sat at the window with a woebegone expression.
He stood in the rain looking cold and woebegone.
After the long night, the team looked woebegone and tired.
Word forms
| comparative | more woebegone |
|---|---|
| superlative | most woebegone |
Common combinations
- woebegone expression
- The child's woebegone expression made everyone feel guilty.
- woebegone look
- He gave us a woebegone look when we left.
- look woebegone
- The dog looks woebegone whenever you pick up the leash.
- woebegone face
- A woebegone face appeared at the door.
- woebegone figure
- A woebegone figure waited at the empty bus stop.
Synonyms and how they differ
- forlorn
- Forlorn suggests loneliness and abandonment, while woebegone puts more emphasis on visible misery.
- dejected
- Dejected describes a low mood after a disappointment, but it is plainer and less picturesque than woebegone.
- miserable
- Miserable is the everyday word and can describe any unhappy or unpleasant state, whereas woebegone mostly describes how someone looks.
- downcast
- Downcast stresses lowered eyes and a sad mood, with less sense of wretched appearance.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: woebegone or gone? woebegone or woeful?
woebegone vs gone
Gone describes something absent. Woebegone is not about leaving, even though it ends in gone, and means looking sad.
woebegone vs woeful
Woeful can mean terrible or poor, as in woeful performance. Woebegone describes a sad appearance.
Practice
The lost boy stood in the empty station with a ___ face, close to tears.
Choose one answer.
Woebegone means looking very sad and miserable, which fits a lost child near tears. Radiant and amused suggest happiness, and defiant would suggest a boldness that does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “woebegone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.