From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishRelated topics: Literature, Theatretragictra‧gic /ˈtrædʒɪk/ ●●○ adjective1DISASTERa tragic event or situation makes you feel very sad, especially because it involves death or suffering → comic
The parents were not to blame for the tragic death of their son.
Lillian Board’s death at 22 was a tragic loss for British athletics.2[only before noun]ALAPTrelating to tragedy in books or playsOPP comic
a great tragic actortragic hero (=the main person in a tragedy)Examples from the Corpustragic• Both sisters died in a tragic car accident.• They were to figure prominently among the more tragic case histories.• This trend has already had plenty of tragicconsequences.• To Callahan, application of industrial methods to the schools had tragic consequences.• Her face was often thoughtful, and there was sometimes a tragicnote in her voice.• Surely nothing in the world could be more tragic than that?• But here Golding offers the extremestinstance of how it might be tragic too.• In a tragictwist of irony, Goldberg was taken seriously.tragic death• Let him know that something good has come out of his tragic death.• Today, the Mirror looks back to the first tragic deaths in one of the world's longest and more bitterconflicts.• Since his tragic death my daughter has carried on his good work.• It concerns the tragic death on 5 February of six-year-old Carley Reavill who died in hospital of meningitis.• The news of his tragic deathstunned everyone.tragic hero• Sentimentalcomedypossesses several characteristics that are incompatible with the classicconcept of tragedy and the tragic hero.• But Laker, like all tragic heroes, had his fatalflaw, hubris.• Party chairman Chris Patten, the tragic hero of the hour, arrived shortly after 11.00 for a lengthypost-mortem.• In most cases the pesme sing of tragic heroes who met violent deaths, martyrs to the national cause.Origintragic(1500-1600)Latintragicus, from Greektragikos, from tragoidia; → TRAGEDY
