From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwoefulwoe‧ful /ˈwəʊfəl $ ˈwoʊ-/ adjective 1 SERIOUS SITUATIONvery bad or serious SYN deplorable a woeful lack of information2 literarySAD/UNHAPPY very sad SYN pathetic woeful eyes —woefully adverb woefully inadequate facilities
Examples from the Corpus
woeful• Oxford tickets sold out, and a woeful 0-0 draw as well.• Her 10-and 12-minute miles have disintegrated to this: a mile logged at a woeful 25 minutes.• It is a woeful and complex story.• a woeful cry of frustration• Narvaez came to a woeful end after finding no gold at a place called Apalachee, believed to be near Tallahassee.• Given more time to contemplate the nature of his existence, Doug One suffers from a woeful identity crisis.• I heard no more of the exchange but this one remark was quite enough to establish his woeful ignorance about the theatre.• a woeful lack of imagination• The woeful Redskins beat the Cowboys twice.• the woeful state of the economy 