Woe is me!

woe is me

An exclamation of lamentation for one's misfortune. The phrase appears in the Bible (Isaiah 6:5) and Shakespeare's Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1), and is typically used ironically or sarcastically. (If used in a straightforward way, it would sound old-fashioned and melodramatic.) A: "So you're annoyed that, because of your raise, you'll have to start paying higher taxes each paycheck?" B: "Yeah, I know, woe is me, right?" "O, woe is me! I have to get up at 8:30 in the morning for my high-paying job!" That's how you sound right now. Oh how the stars themselves conspire against me! My life is beset by all manner of ill fortune! O, woe is me!
See also: woe
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

Woe is me!

I am unfortunate.; I am unhappy. (Usually humorous.) Woe is me! I have to work when the rest of the office staff is off. Woe is me. I have the flu and my friends have gone to a party.
See also: woe
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • woe is me
  • hoo-rah
  • excuse you
  • boom goes the dynamite
  • dynamite
  • ah
  • in-your-face
References in classic literature
ANTIGONE Ah, woe is me! This word I hear Brings death most near.
Antigone
ANTIGONE Ah, woe is me! where shall I fly, where find Succor from gods or men?
She was, ah woe is me! she was my mother; I knew it not, nor she; and she my mother Bare children to the son whom she had borne, A birth of shame.
Oedipus At Colonus