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