sorry Meaning, Definition & Usage

adjective feeling or expressing regret or sorrow or a sense of loss over something done or undone
bad; regretful.
- felt regretful over his vanished youth
- regretful over mistakes she had made
- he felt bad about breaking the vase
adjective satellite bad; unfortunate
distressing; sad; pitiful; lamentable; deplorable.
- my finances were in a deplorable state
- a lamentable decision
- her clothes were in sad shape
- a sorry state of affairs
adjective satellite without merit
no-good; meritless; no-account; good-for-naught; no-count; good-for-nothing.
- a sorry horse
- a sorry excuse
- a lazy no-count, good-for-nothing goldbrick
- the car was a no-good piece of junk
adjective satellite causing dejection
blue; dingy; drear; disconsolate; dreary; dark; gloomy; dismal; drab; grim.
- a blue day
- the dark days of the war
- a week of rainy depressing weather
- a disconsolate winter landscape
- the first dismal dispiriting days of November
- a dark gloomy day
- grim rainy weather

OE. sory, sary, AS. sarig, fr. sar, n., sore. See Sore, n. & a. The original sense was, painful; hence. miserable, sad.

comparative Sorrier ; superlative Sorriest

Grieved for the loss of some good; pained for some evil; feeling regret; -- now generally used to express light grief or affliction, but formerly often used to express deeper feeling. "I am sorry for my sins." Piers Plowman.
Ye were made sorry after a godly manner. 2 Cor. vii. 9.

I am sorry for thee, friend; 't is the duke's pleasure. Shak.

She entered, were he lief or sorry. Spenser.
Melancholy; dismal; gloomy; mournful. Spenser.
All full of chirking was this sorry place. Chaucer.
Poor; mean; worthless; as, a sorry excuse. "With sorry grace." Chaucer.
Cheeks of sorry grain will serve. Milton.

Good fruit will sometimes grow on a sorry tree. Sir W. Scott.
Syn. -- Hurt; afflicted; mortified; vexed; chagrined; melancholy; dismal; poor; mean; pitiful.