better than nothing vs wretched

better than nothing

adj
  • Barely useful; almost worthless or pointless, but nevertheless better than having nothing at all. 

wretched

adj
  • Of an insignificant, mean, or poor nature; miserable, paltry, worthless. 

  • Of a person, etc.: behaving in a manner deserving contempt; base, despicable, wicked. 

  • Of weather: causing much discomfort; very unpleasant; miserable. 

  • Characterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable. 

  • Of an inferior or unworthy nature or social status; contemptible, lowly. 

  • Used to express annoyance towards or dislike of someone or something: bloody, damned. 

How often have the words better than nothing and wretched occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )