a sad state (of affairs)

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a sad state (of affairs)

A particularly unfortunate, unpleasant, or upsetting situation or set of circumstances. Their company has been in a sad state after Jonathan took over. It's a sad state of affairs when you can no longer be sure how you're going to feed your children each night. You talked to the accountant? OK, please tell me our finances aren't in a sad state of affairs his quarter.
See also: sad, state
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

sad state of affairs, a

An unhappy condition, unfortunate circumstances. The use of state of affairs to describe events or circumstances originated as the more ambiguous state of things, which was first recorded in 1555. Affairs began to be used about two centuries later. R. L. Green played on it in The Land of Lord High Tiger: “Sad affairs of State! Sad state of affairs! Affairs of a sad state.” It is sometimes put as sorry state of affairs.
See also: of, sad, state
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
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References in classic literature ?
We are now in a sad state; no house was ever more altered; the whole party are at war, and Mainwaring scarcely dares speak to me.
She was in a sad state when she got home, and when the older girls arrived, some time later, an indignation meeting was held at once.
Boxtel was so eager to ascertain the extent of the injury, that he remained at his post until morning to feast his eyes on the sad state in which the two cats had left the flower-beds of his neighbour.
During the six years which had passed since Noirtier first fell into this sad state, Valentine's powers of invention had been too often put to the test not to render her expert in devising expedients for gaining a knowledge of his wishes, and the constant practice had so perfected her in the art that she guessed the old man's meaning as quickly as if he himself had been able to seek for what he wanted.
Jane Porter had of course not been subjected to these strenuous expeditions, but her apparel was, nevertheless, in a sad state of disrepair.
That was too much for Aunt Clara, and she hastily departed, with her mind in a sad state of perturbation about Mrs.
You think that her father, even in this sad state, will submit himself to her; do you not?"
what a sad state your worship's brains are in!" said Sancho.
The mind is in a sad state when Sleep, the all-involving, cannot confine her spectres within the dim region of her sway, but suffers them to break forth, affrighting this actual life with secrets that perchance belong to a deeper one.
"I can see no remedy for this sad state of things," he said, "as long as the public feeling remains what the public feeling is now.
"A sad state of things, but nothing very desperate.
Then he assembled his council, and having told them the sad state of things, added: "If any of you can succeed in curing the princess, I will give her to him in marriage, and he shall be my heir."
LAST week I wrote of the sad state of Bury football club.
What a sad state of affairs for a supposedly super modern city.
He said it was sad state of affairs in Sindh that police was siding with criminals and influential persons of ruling party.