One who is sunk in deep distress, sorrow, misfortune, or poverty; a miserable, unhappy, or unfortunate person; a poor or hapless being.

Expressing commiseration: A wretched miserable person, a poor wretch, one in a piteous case. Obsolete.

A word of uncertain origin, frequent in Cursor Mundi, the later texts of which render it caitiff or wretch.

absol., in singular or plural sense.

A miserable person; a person who is extremely poor, unhappy, or wretched. Frequently in plural.

A miserable or wretched person; a wretch. Obsolete.

With the and plural agreement. Those who are afflicted; afflicted people collectively. Also occasionally as singular: an afflicted person.

A term of depreciation or pity (meaning uncertain).

In a vague depreciatory sense, ‘a (poor) creature’, ‘a (poor, pious) soul’, ‘a (poor) devil’.

Applied in contempt or pity, chiefly with poor: a person who is wretched, luckless, or in a sorry plight.

A person of undermined, shattered, or ruined constitution; one who is debilitated by ill-health, hardship, etc. (Cf. sense 6b.)