deuced shame
- noun
- Archaic
:
maldita pena
- Losing that opportunity truly felt like a deuced shame to her.
Examples
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It was a deuced shame that he missed the concert after all his preparation.
-
Everyone agreed it was a deuced shame the team lost despite playing so well.
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What a deuced shame!
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It was a deuced shame that we missed the concert.
-
Everyone agreed it was a deuced shame the team lost despite playing so well.
-
It was a deuced shame that he missed the concert after all his preparation.
-
Losing that opportunity truly felt like a deuced shame to her.
Synonyms
442
1.3
A sad or disappointing situation you wish were different
6
4.6
A very sad situation that makes people feel sorry
A feeling of regret or disappointment about something unfortunate
Antonyms
How Shameful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a great pity/very regrettable' is directly derivable from combining 'deuced' (an intensifier) with 'shame' (a regrettable thing), so the overall sense is compositional. This intensifier + noun pattern is common and predictable cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning, despite 'deuced' being somewhat informal or dated.
Etymology
Deuced shame may come from an old use of deuced, where deuce meant the 'devil', so deuced was a strong way to say 'very', and shame means a sad loss. So, deuced shame became a vivid way to say 'a great disappointment'.