Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Feeling or expressing regret, sorrow, or sympathy: Used to express that one feels sadness, pity, or disappointment about a situation or an action.
   • Poor, pitiful, or inadequate: Describes something that is in a bad, unfortunate, or low-quality state.

Usage

• Expressing Regret or Apology: "Sorry" is most commonly used to apologize for a minor mistake, inconvenience, or to express sympathy for someone's misfortune.
• Describing a Pitiful State: It can describe a situation, condition, or object that is unfortunate, dismal, or of poor quality.

Examples

• Expressing Regret/Apology:
  • I am sorry for being late.
  • She felt sorry for the injured animal.
  • "I'm sorry to hear about your loss," he said.
• Describing a Poor State:
  • The old house was in a sorry condition.
  • He made a sorry attempt to fix the problem.
  • It was a sorry excuse for a celebration.

Advanced Usage

• "To be/feel sorry for someone": To feel pity or sympathy for another person.
  • I feel sorry for him because he lost his job.
• "To be sorry about/for something": To feel regret or remorse for a specific action or event.
  • She is sorry for what she said.
• "A sorry sight/state/affair": An idiom describing something that is pitiful, dismal, or regrettable.
  • After the storm, the garden was a sorry sight.

Variants and Related Words

• Sorrier (adj): Comparative form of "sorry".
• Sorriest (adj): Superlative form of "sorry".
• Sorriness (n): The state or quality of being sorry (less common).

Synonyms

• Regretful: Feeling sad or disappointed about something one has done or failed to do.
• Apologetic: Expressing or showing an admission of fault or regret.
• Pitiful: Deserving or arousing pity; also, very poor or inadequate.
• Deplorable: Deserving strong condemnation; shockingly bad.

Antonyms

• Unrepentant: Not feeling regret or sorrow for one's actions.
• Excellent: Extremely good; outstanding.
• Fortunate: Favored by or involving good luck.

Related Phrases

• "Better safe than sorry": It is wiser to be cautious and careful than to take risks and later regret it.
  • I brought an umbrella; it's better safe than sorry.
• "Sorry to bother you": A polite phrase used before interrupting or asking someone for something.
  • Sorry to bother you, but could you help me with this?

Adjective

1. causing dejection
   • 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
2. without merit
   • a sorry horse
   • a sorry excuse
   • a lazy no-count, good-for-nothing goldbrick
   • the car was a no-good piece of junk
3. bad; unfortunate
   • my finances were in a deplorable state
   • a lamentable decision
   • her clothes were in sad shape
   • a sorry state of affairs
4. feeling or expressing regret or sorrow or a sense of loss over something done or undone
   • felt regretful over his vanished youth
   • regretful over mistakes she had made
   • he felt bad about breaking the vase