1.
If you are miserable, you are very unhappy.
I took a series of badly paid secretarial jobs which made me really miserable...
ADJ: usu v-link ADJ
• miserably
He looked miserably down at his plate.
ADV: usu ADV after v
2.
If you describe a place or situation as miserable, you mean that it makes you feel unhappy or depressed.
There was nothing at all in this miserable place to distract him.
= depressing
ADJ: usu ADJ n
3.
If you describe the weather as miserable, you mean that it makes you feel depressed, because it is raining or dull.
It was a grey, wet, miserable day...
ADJ
4.
If you describe someone as miserable, you mean that you do not like them because they are bad-tempered or unfriendly.
He always was a miserable man. He never spoke to me nor anybody else.
ADJ: ADJ n
5.
You can describe a quantity or quality as miserable when you think that it is much smaller or worse than it ought to be.
Our speed over the ground was a miserable 2.2 knots...
ADJ: usu a ADJ amount [emphasis]
• miserably
...the miserably inadequate supply of books now provided for schools.
ADV: ADV adj
6.
A miserable failure is a very great one.
The film was a miserable commercial failure both in Italy and in the United States.
ADJ: ADJ n [emphasis]
• miserably
Some manage it. Some fail miserably.
ADV: ADV with v