What's the difference between melancholy and woe?

Melancholy


Definition:

  • (n.) Depression of spirits; a gloomy state continuing a considerable time; deep dejection; gloominess.
  • (n.) Great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to mental unsoundness; melancholia.
  • (n.) Pensive maditation; serious thoughtfulness.
  • (n.) Ill nature.
  • (a.) Depressed in spirits; dejected; gloomy dismal.
  • (a.) Producing great evil and grief; causing dejection; calamitous; afflictive; as, a melancholy event.
  • (a.) Somewhat deranged in mind; having the jugment impaired.
  • (a.) Favorable to meditation; somber.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One radio critic described Jacobs' late night Sunday show as a "tidying-up time, a time for wistfulness, melancholy, a recognition that there were once great things and great feelings in this world.
  • (2) And melancholy is not the only thing that links Haigh’s work.
  • (3) Melancholy originally had another meaning from the present one.
  • (4) the agitated type of involutional melancholy occurred twice as often in Canada as in Hungary, the apathetic cases were rarer in Canada, and the illness began earlier among Canadian women.
  • (5) Thus New Zealand, like other countries, may be entering an age of melancholy.
  • (6) English explanations stressed religious aspects and a relationship to melancholy.
  • (7) I too was attracted to the paintings of De Chirico and Delvaux, with their dreamplaces – empty, melancholy cities, abandoned temples, broken statues, shadows, exaggerated perspectives.
  • (8) Earlier this week in Janesville, where post-industrial melancholy is evident in a closed car plant and eerily quiet downtown, House speaker Paul Ryan crushed a Trump-style challenger in a congressional primary.
  • (9) There was always a rueful melancholy, stiffened by irony and leavened by humour about him.
  • (10) Song of the summer was Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks, with its odd blend of keening melancholy and positivism.
  • (11) Resorting to a series of Ted the swordsman scenes which may merely be the lurid fantasies of the heroine, director Christine Jeffs never makes it clear whether Hughes was a rampaging philanderer whose sexual conquests and general obliviousness to Plath's mounting depression led to her demise, or a man driven into other women's arms by his wife's chronic melancholy - perhaps the most time-honoured excuse of the inveterate tomcat - or both.
  • (12) "Oh, if one of Dostoevsky's novels, whose black melancholy is regarded with such indulgent admiration, were signed with the name of Goncourt, what a slating it would get all along the line."
  • (13) It's a melancholy fate for any writer to become an eponym for all that he despised, but that is what happened to George Orwell, whose memory is routinely abused in unthinking uses of the adjective "Orwellian".
  • (14) As the lead singer with the Walker Brothers, he enjoyed a number of melancholy hits with songs such as The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore, My Ship Is Coming In, No Regrets.
  • (15) The leading role is infinitely variable: as Oscar Wilde said , "There are as many Hamlets as there are melancholies."
  • (16) In the right light and with the right song playing on the radio, there is a certain melancholy charm to this bleak highway with its unfolding panorama of wind turbines and electricity pylons stretching to the horizon.
  • (17) On the contrary: Sørens incomparable melancholy, mental agony and anxiety (fear or anguish) forced the faith, existing independently of them, in a radical refining.
  • (18) There’s a magnificent melancholy about him, this shadowy figure performing an act of unrequited love.
  • (19) Closer is a melancholy piece but it is also laugh-out-loud funny, often, as in the very best drama, at moments of starkest pain.
  • (20) Research is needed to determine whether youth will be predisposed to further depressive episodes and, if so, will we be entering a new age of melancholy?

Woe


Definition:

  • (n.) A curse; a malediction.
  • (a.) Woeful; sorrowful.
  • (n.) Grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The disappointing weather at Easter left beaches deserted but some Britons, who were determined to enjoy the outdoors this time round, have already had their plans thwarted by the weather, taking to websites such as ukcampsite.co.uk to swap tales of woe, such as farmers calling to cancel bookings because sites were waterlogged.
  • (2) If I’m the bad guy because I’m not the guy they want me to be, then so be it.” Over the last year he resolved his promotional woes in court and has since signed with Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports – along with Miguel Cotto the nascent sports agency’s highest-profile signing in boxing.
  • (3) While Chinese media have not spelt out Zhou's woes explicitly, the hints have grown more blatant by the month, with some identifying him via his family relationships.
  • (4) Asked if Aamer would talk publicly about his experiences, Crider said: “I think he will make up his own mind about it, and really, woe betide the person who tries to silence Shaker Aamer.” She added that it would be up to him “how much of his story and the terrible things he witnessed that he wants to tell”.
  • (5) Plummeting oil prices only added to economic woes in a country with the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves.
  • (6) To add to their woes, the cost of their dollar-denominated debt is rising; the US Federal Reserve said December’s rate hike is just the start of a “gradual” tightening cycle .
  • (7) It’s a seismic moment for the industry and particularly the big European manufacturers who have done a lot of work on diesel: technologically, they have they made the wrong bet.” Some analysts believe fears of brand damage in Europe are overstated but Bailey says: “In the US it’s very different: VW have killed their diesel market and it has left them in a very difficult position.” For British manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, the timing of VW’s woes was ominous, as it unveiled two new diesels in America.
  • (8) The aluminium magnate's British-related woes do not stop there: a former business partner, Michael Cherney, is suing him for $4bn in the high court.
  • (9) We have to acknowledge that it's extremely hard to build a regular city from scratch.” Furthermore, some experts say that certified green buildings and pedestrian-friendly roads are a worthless patch for China’s environmental woes, not a solution.
  • (10) The woes of British industry were ­echoed right across Europe in November, as firms slashed production amid plunging demand from consumers in all the world's major markets.
  • (11) Clinton said her woes over her email server had been a “drip, drip, drip” that was impacting her.
  • (12) In an otherwise assured performance on Sunday’s Andrew Marr Show , Douglas Alexander – when urged to address Ed Miliband’s woes – resorted to the words of Harold Wilson.
  • (13) Buhari has presented himself as a born-again democrat who possesses the experience to steer the country through instability, currency woes and rampant corruption.
  • (14) Creative diplomacy is still much required in the Middle East, where it is hard to see how a dominantly military strategy against Islamic State can in itself, and even over time, bring a solution to the region’s woes.
  • (15) The unrest over rising petrol prices is only further adding to Nigeria's security woes: Jonathan already declared a state of emergency over the weekend in parts of the country hit by a growing Islamic insurgency that is fuelled in part by widespread poverty.
  • (16) But that may be the least of Ukip’s woes as it sups the bitter draught of victory.
  • (17) 7.31pm BST Nick Kyrgios's legs have gone to jelly and his heart is full of woe.
  • (18) It is not the cause of Spain's economic woes, but think of this: if everybody paid their dues, Spain's deficit would be zero.
  • (19) The result in some richer countries has been a political movement that blames globalisation for all woes and seeks somehow to wall off the economy from global trends rather than engage cooperatively with foreign nations.
  • (20) Probably... April 23, 2013 11.42am BST Analysts see little relief for Europe The continuing fall in Eurozone output this month ( see 9.19am ) led by Germany's shrinking private sector seconomy, shows that there's no improvement in Europe's woes.

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