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PITIFUL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Inspiring mixed contempt and pity
Example:
pitiful exhibition of cowardice
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
contemptible (deserving of contempt or scorn)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Deserving or inciting pity
Example:
a wretched life
Synonyms:
hapless; miserable; misfortunate; pathetic; piteous; pitiable; pitiful; poor; wretched
Classified under:
Similar:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Bad; unfortunate
Example:
a sorry state of affairs
Synonyms:
deplorable; distressing; lamentable; pitiful; sad; sorry
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
Context examples:
It must have been this, I suppose, that stirred in my soul that tempest of impatience with which I listened to the civilities of my unhappy victim; I declare, at least, before God, no man morally sane could have been guilty of that crime upon so pitiful a provocation; and that I struck in no more reasonable spirit than that in which a sick child may break a plaything.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Is it not pitiful?
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They were telling one another of all the places where they had been waddling about all the morning, and what good food they had found; and one said in a pitiful tone: Something lies heavy on my stomach; as I was eating in haste I swallowed a ring which lay under the queen’s window.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
There was no triumph, no pitiful triumph in his manner.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Oh! D— it, when one has the means of doing a kind thing by a friend, I hate to be pitiful.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Come, let me see the list of pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof by Lydia's folly.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
They must not do less than others, or she should be exposed to odious suspicions, and imagined capable of pitiful resentment.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
A more scrawny, pitiful specimen of humanity one could hardly conceive.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
She herself agreed as to its wisdom, and it was pitiful to see her so brave and yet so sorrowful, and in such a depth of despair.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
He was going away from them, his pitiful, dishonored children that were welcome nowhere.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
