Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Inspiring or deserving pity.
- adj. Arousing contemptuous pity, as through ineptitude or inadequacy. See Synonyms at pathetic.
- adj. Archaic Filled with pity or compassion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full of pity; tender; compassionate; having a feeling of sorrow and sympathy for the distressed.
- Exciting or fitted to excite pity or compassion; miserable; deplorable; sad: as, a pitiful condition; a pitiful look.
- To be pitied for its littleness or meanness; paltry; insignificant; contemptible; despicable.
Wiktionary
- adj. Feeling pity; merciful.
- adj. So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
- adj. Very small (of an amount or number).
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Full of pity; tender-hearted; compassionate; kind; merciful; sympathetic.
- adj. Piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion.
- adj. To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. bad; unfortunate.
- adj. deserving or inciting pity
- adj. inspiring mixed contempt and pity
Etymologies
- From pity + -ful. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Consider This: Not only is this name hard to spell and pronounce, but it also seems to conjure up the word pitiful.”
“Lipton looked across at Conroy, his expression pitiful.”
“They went around trying to get invited – how pitiful is that and even came with their own film crew.”
“This model is in pitiful shape; it's warped with water damaged, faded from the sun, and set beneath a perpetual drip of water-runoff from the cliff above.”
“A thousand dogs, in pitiful chorus, wailed their ancient wrongs and claimed mercy from the unheeding stars.”
“The one thing that enlivened this trip was the appearance of naked Arabs, who would occasionally run along the banks of the canal, crying in pitiful tones, "bahkshish.”
“I think that phrase pitiful giant is an awkward one.”
“We are now what another beknighted president, in another war, called a pitiful, helpless giant.”
“At this point, you have to decide whether it's hilarious or just plain pitiful.”
“IMHO, calling the pitiful quartet of articles of questionable merit and doubtful applicability anything like a “scientific and intellectual program” verges awfully close on…well, on lying.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pitiful’.
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EN - eesily missspellable wirds
accessible, accommodate, achievement, acquaintance, address, advertisement, alleged, athletics, attendance, auxiliary, believe, challenge and 118 more...
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The Pits
armpit, pit, pits, cockpit, pity, pithy, pit bull terrier, pit boss, pit stop, pitcher, fire pit, peach pit and 76 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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Expressions
(Facial)
pained, pitiful, reproachful, annoyed, dismissive, excited, eager, spiteful, contemptuous, passive, calm, nervous and 155 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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eye-ful(l)
eyeful, I-ful, i beamful, eifel
reckful, soulful, awful, aweful, presentful, nowful, mindful, zestful, apful, fruitful, tankful, thankful and 62 more...
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Remember and Use!
motherese, chancy, paraphrase, drippy, reluctant, oblivious, captivating, inevitable, sophisticated, naïveté, thought-provoking, hypochondriac and 18 more...
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