• IPA: /sæd/

sad (comparative sadder, superlative saddest)

1. (heading) Emotionally negative.
   1. Feeling sorrow; sorrowful, mournful.

      She gets sad when he's away.

      • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

        First were we sad, fearing you would not come; / Now sadder, that you come so unprovided.

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book 9”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

        The angelic guards ascended, mute and sad.

   2. Appearing sorrowful.

      The puppy had a sad little face.

   3. Causing sorrow; lamentable.

      It's a sad fact that most rapes go unreported.

      • The Great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad, / For all their wars are merry and all their songs are sad.

   4. Poor in quality, bad; shameful, deplorable; later, regrettable, poor.

      That's the saddest-looking pickup truck I've ever seen.

      • 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan (Byron), II.127:

        Heaven knows what cash he got, or blood he spilt, / A sad old fellow was he, if you please […].

   5. Of colours: dark, deep; later, sombre, dull.
      • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, II.5:

        this is either used crude, and called Sulphur Vive, and is of a sadder colour; or after depuration, such as we have in magdeleons of rolls, of a lighter yellow.

      • sad-coloured clothes

      • Woad, or wade, is used by the dyers to lay the foundation of all sad colours.

2. (obsolete) Sated, having had one's fill; satisfied, weary.
3. (obsolete) Steadfast, valiant.
4. (obsolete) Dignified, serious, grave.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. […], London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938 ↗, book II, canto IX:

     Vprose Sir Guyon, in bright armour clad, / And to his purposd iourney him prepar'd: / With him the Palmer eke in habit sad, / Him selfe addrest to that aduenture hard {{...}

   • ripe and sad courage

   • which treaty was wisely handled by sad and discrete counsel of both parties

5. (obsolete) Naughty; troublesome; wicked.

   • Sad tipsy fellows, both of them.

6. (slang) Unfashionable; socially inadequate or undesirable.

   I can't believe you use drugs; you're so sad!

7. (dialect) Soggy (to refer to pastries).
8. (obsolete) Heavy; weighty; ponderous; close; hard.

   sad bread

   • his hand, more sad than lump of lead

   • Chalky lands are naturally cold and sad.

• (feeling mentally uncomfortable) discomforted, distressed, uncomfortable, unhappy
• (low in spirits) depressed, down in the dumps, glum, melancholy
• (moving, full of feeling) poignant, touching
• (causing sorrow) lamentable
• (poor in quality) pitiful, sorry
• See also Thesaurus:sad
• See also Thesaurus:lamentable

• happy
• cheerful
• gleeful, upbeat
• decent

• sadden

• German: trist

• French: triste
• German: traurig
• Italian: triste
• Portuguese: triste
• Russian: гру́стный
• Spanish: triste

• French: triste

sad (sads, present participle sadding; past and past participle sadded)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make melancholy; to sadden or grieve (someone).
   • 16??, John Webster, Appius and Virginia

     My father's wondrous pensive, and withal / With a suppress'd rage left his house displeas'd, / And so in post is hurried to the camp: / It sads me much; to expel which melancholy, / I have sent for company.

sad (plural sads)

1. Alternative form of saad#English|saad (“Arabic letter”)

sad (plural sads)

1. (medicine) Initialism of seasonal affective disorder
2. Initialism of standard American diet
3. (US) Initialism of w:Special Activities Division
4. (psychology) Initialism of w:social anxiety disorder
5. (X-ray crystallography) Initialism of w:single-wavelength anomalous dispersion