Used to identify or express sympathy with someone's misfortune or suffering. Based on the much more common "woe is me," which appears in the Bible and Shakespeare's Hamlet, the phrase is often used ironically or sarcastically. (If used in a straightforward way, it would sound old-fashioned and melodramatic.) A: "It's just so unfair that I'll have to start paying a higher rate of tax because of this raise." B: "Oh, yeah, woe is you." The legislation is becoming increasingly complex, and with enforcement tightening all the time, woe is you should you fail to familiarize yourself with every letter of the law.