Miserable

adjective MIZ-rab-l ˈmɪzrabl

Also spelled miserable, mizrable, mizerable

Quarrelsome, troublesome, and hard to please — not merely unhappy, as in standard English, but bad-tempered and difficult. In Jamaican use a 'miserable' person is cantankerous and always finding fault or making trouble, and a 'miserable pickney' is a mischievous, unruly, into-everything child. So where English 'miserable' means sad, the Patois sense is closer to cranky, contrary, and vexatious.

  • Dat pickney miserable, him inna everyting.

    That child is a handful; he's into everything.

  • Di ole man miserable, him quarrel wid everybody.

    The old man is cantankerous; he quarrels with everybody.

  • She too miserable fi please.

    She's too hard to please.

From English 'miserable', shifted in sense to quarrelsome/troublesome. See [[cross]], [[facety]].

Quarrelsome/troublesome/cranky (not just sad); of a child, mischievous. See [[cross]], [[out-of-order]].