CARVIEW |
Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Inspiring or deserving pity.
- adjective Arousing contemptuous pity, as through ineptitude or inadequacy. synonym: pathetic.
- adjective Archaic Filled with pity or compassion.
from The Century Dictionary.
- 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Full of pity; tender-hearted; compassionate; kind; merciful; sympathetic.
- adjective Piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion.
- adjective To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Feeling
pity ;merciful . - adjective So
appalling orsad that one feels or should feelsorry for it; elicitingpity . - adjective Very small (of an amount or number).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective bad; unfortunate
- adjective deserving or inciting pity
- adjective inspiring mixed contempt and pity
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support

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Examples
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Consider This: Not only is this name hard to spell and pronounce, but it also seems to conjure up the word pitiful.
5-Star Baby Name Advisor Bruce Lansky 2008
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Consider This: Not only is this name hard to spell and pronounce, but it also seems to conjure up the word pitiful.
5-Star Baby Name Advisor Bruce Lansky 2008
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Lipton looked across at Conroy, his expression pitiful.
Sin City Max Allan Collins 2002
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Lipton looked across at Conroy, his expression pitiful.
Sin City Max Allan Collins 2002
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Lipton looked across at Conroy, his expression pitiful.
Sin City Max Allan Collins 2002
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They went around trying to get invited – how pitiful is that and even came with their own film crew.
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A thousand dogs, in pitiful chorus, wailed their ancient wrongs and claimed mercy from the unheeding stars.
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A thousand dogs, in pitiful chorus, wailed their ancient wrongs and claimed mercy from the unheeding stars.
THE SCORN OF WOMEN 2010
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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.
April 28th, 2005 2005
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A thousand dogs, in pitiful chorus, wailed their ancient wrongs and claimed mercy from the unheeding stars.
The Scorn of Women 1901
Related Words
synonyms (123)
Words with the same meaning
- abominable
- affecting
- arrant
- atrocious
- awful
- base
- beastly
- beggarly
- beneath contempt
- beneath one
- blameworthy
- brutal
- cheap
- cheesy
- common
- compassionate
- contemptible
- crummy
- debasing
- degrading
- demeaning
- deplorable
- despicable
- detestable
- dire
- disgraceful
- disgusting
- doleful
- dreadful
- egregious
- enormous
- fetid
- filthy
- flagrant
- foul
- fulsome
- gaudy
- gimcracky
- grievous
- gross
- gutter
- hateful
- heartrending
- heinous
- horrible
- horrid
- humiliating
- humiliative
- infamous
- infra dig
- infra indignitatem
- insignificant
- kind
- lamentable
- little
- loathsome
- lousy
- mean
- merciful
- meretricious
- miserable
- monstrous
- moving
- nasty
- nefarious
- noisome
- notorious
- obnoxious
- odious
- offensive
- opprobrious
- outrageous
- paltry
- pathetic
- piteous
- pitiable
- poor
- rank
- regrettable
- reprehensible
- repulsive
- rotten
- rubbishy
- rueful
- sad
- scandalous
- schlock
- scrubby
- scruffy
- scummy
- scurvy
- scuzzy
- shabby
- shameful
- shocking
- shoddy
- small
- sordid
- sorry
- squalid
- sympathetic
- tender-hearted
- terrible
- too bad
- touching
- trashy
- trifling
- trumpery
- two-for-a-cent
- two-for-a-penny
- twopenny
- twopenny-halfpenny
- unbecoming
- unclean
- unimportant
- unworthy of one
- valueless
- vile
- villainous
- woeful
- worst
- worthless
- wretched
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