Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Woe

Woe (wō), n. [OE. wo, wa, woo, AS. wā, interj.; akin to D. wee, OS. & OHG. wē, G. weh, Icel. vei, Dan. vee, Sw. ve, Goth. wai; cf. L. vae, Gr. οἰ. √128. Cf. Wail.] [Formerly written also wo.]

1. Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, Sad instrument of all our woe, she took. Milton.

[They] weep each other's woe. Pope.

2. A curse; a malediction.

Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice? South.

☞ Woe is used in denunciation, and in exclamations of sorrow. " Woe is me! for I am undone." Isa. vi. 5.

O! woe were us alive [i.e., in life]. Chaucer.

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Isa. xlv. 9.

Woe worth, Woe be to. See Worth, v. i.

Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, That costs thy life, my gallant gray! Sir W. Scott.

Woe, a. Woeful; sorrowful. [Obs.]

His clerk was woe to do that deed. Robert of Brunne.

Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed. Chaucer.

And looking up he waxed wondrous woe. Spenser.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.