misery loves company
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misery loves company
Miserable people like others to be unhappy. I know misery loves company, but quit trying to bring me down just because you had a bad day at work.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
Misery loves company.
Prov. Unhappy people like other people to be unhappy too. Jill: Why is Linda criticizing everybody today? Jane: Her boss criticized her this morning, and misery loves company. I should probably feel bad because my sister is so depressed, but I'm pretty depressed myself. Misery loves company.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
misery loves company
Fellow sufferers make unhappiness easier to bear, as in She secretly hoped her friend would fail, too-misery loves company. Words to this effect appeared in the work of Sophocles (c. 408 b.c.) and other ancient writers; the earliest recorded use in English was about 1349.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
misery loves company
Fellow sufferers make pain easier to bear. This observation dates from ancient Greek and Roman times or even earlier; Sophocles (Oedipus at Colonnus, ca. 408 b.c.) and Seneca (ca. a.d. 54) both wrote words to that effect. John Lyly’s Euphues stated it as “In misery it is great comfort to haue a companion” (1579), but the precise wording of the modern cliché does not appear until the nineteenth century. More recently, Brian Moore quipped, “If misery loves company, then triumph demands an audience” (An Answer from Limbo, 1962).
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer