pitiful Hear it!

pitiful Definition

piti·ful (piti fəl)

adjective

  1. arousing or deserving pity
  2. deserving contempt; despicable
  3. Archaic full of pity or compassion

pitiful Related Forms

piti·fully adverb piti·ful·ness noun

pitiful Synonyms

pitiful

modif.

  1. Affecting

    pathetic, pitiable, piteous, affecting, miserable, mournful, sad, sorrowful, woeful, distressed, distressing, cheerless, comfortless, lamentable, deplorable, joyless, dismal, touching, moving, stirring, arousing, poignant, heartbreaking, human, dramatic, tearful, heart-rending, depressing, afflicting, afflicted, suffering, poor, forlorn, wretched; see also sad 2.

    Antonyms happy*, cheerful*, joyful. *

  2. Contemptibly inadequate

    wretched, pathetic, paltry, contemptible; see inadequate 1, poor 2, sorry 2.

pitiful applies to that which arouses or deserves pity because it is sad, pathetic, etc. the suffering of the starving children was pitiful, but is often used now to imply contemptible inadequacy a pitiful amount; pitiable emphasizes the deserving, rather than the arousing, of pity, and may also suggest a greater or lesser degree of contempt mingled with commiseration their situation was pitiable; piteous stresses the nature of the thing calling for pity rather than its influence on the observer piteous groans

pitiful Usage Examples

Infinitive complement

see: It was pitiful to see the poor horse, flat on its side, twitching.

Modifies a noun

  • sight: Darius ' heart cracked at the pitiful sight of a man broken by the weight of his worries.
  • excuse: What a pitiful excuse, when the government have been in power for nearly five years.
  • creature: It didn't follow through to the pitiful creature Hughes eventually became.
  • existence: Having said that, it is sad that people are treated just as customers; we are all in this pitiful existence together.
  • wage: Robert is one of the thousands of waiters who struggle to feed their families on pitiful wages in an ailing economy.
  • attempt: Saw a whole village's worth of people, all tied together in a pitiful attempt to save their own lives through common struggle.

Modifying Another Word

  • rather: I knew I should have had something more than just a rather pitiful BBC canteen sandwich for lunch.
  • so: We are so pitiful, but we're tired.
  • very: And thus we see " the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
  • truly: I am afraid that I consider that putting up a few warning signs is a truly pitiful response.
  • fairly: This sort of security can leave our bank balances at the end of the day fairly pitiful.
  • equally: Both scenarios are equally possible and both are equally pitiful.

Used with adjective complement

  • look: For all our good work down the left we looked pitiful down the right.
  • seem: It seemed pitiful to see so good a model left to country admirers and a country way of thought.
  • become: She reconciles herself with the lot of a woman who is beaten, without becoming pitiful.

Browse dictionary entries near pitiful

  1. pitier
  2. pitiable
  3. pithy
  4. Pithecanthropus erectus
  5. pithecanthropine
  6. pith
  7. pitfall
  8. piteous
  9. pitchy
  10. pitchstone
  1. pitiless
  2. pitman
  3. piton
  4. Pitot-static tube
  5. Pitot tube
  6. Pitt
  7. pittance
  8. pitted
  9. pitter-patter
  10. pittosporum