piteous

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“
"Lo you, how emptily they stare upon us! ... how frozen-piteous is their smile!

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Definitions (7)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Demanding or arousing pity: a piteous appeal for help. See Synonyms at pathetic.
  2. adjective Archaic Pitying; compassionate.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Would not his case have been more piteous, a source of more righteous indignation, than that even of the Mores or Raleighs? —  Life of Cicero
  • And most piteous were the lamentations of the poor old man, when, at last, they also were obliged to bid him "Farewell!" —  The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
  • He's self-deprecating without being piteous, and sincere to a fault. —  Edge Online - Interactive Entertainment Today
  • Symbolically it might be called a piteous appeal, always rejected by souls hardened and hammered by vice, of that anvil which was only an optical illusion, and that very real bell They say," thought Durtal, "they say that ignorant architects and unskilled archćologists wish to free St. Severin from its rags, and surround it with trees in an enclosed square. —  En Route
  • His art is to make the collar-button seem a piteous, almost a tragic thing. —  Pipefuls
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

plaintive ·  pitiful ·  anguished ·  doleful ·  wordless ·  heart-rending ·  lamentable ·  pitiable ·  tearful ·  sad ·  frantic ·  reproachful
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French piteus, from Late Latin pietōsus, merciful, from Latin pietās, compassion; see piety.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English piteous, pytyous, peteos, pitivous, pytevous, petevous, pitous, pitos, from Old French pitos, piteus, French piteux = Provencal piatos, pietos, pitos, pidos = Spanish piadoso = Portuguese piadoso, piedoso = Italian piatoso, pietoso, from Middle Latin pietosus, pitiful, from Latin pieta(t-)s, piety, Middle Latin pity: see pity.
 

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/ˈpɪtəəs/
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