| English Dictionary |
PITIFUL
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Dictionary entry overview: What does pitiful mean?
• PITIFUL (adjective)
The adjective PITIFUL has 3 senses:
1. inspiring mixed contempt and pity
2. bad; unfortunate
3. deserving or inciting pity
Familiarity information: PITIFUL used as an adjective is uncommon.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Inspiring mixed contempt and pity
Synonyms:
Context example:
pitiful exhibition of cowardice
Similar:
contemptible (deserving of contempt or scorn)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Bad; unfortunate
Synonyms:
deplorable; distressing; lamentable; pitiful; sad; sorry
Context example:
a sorry state of affairs
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Deserving or inciting pity
Synonyms:
hapless; miserable; misfortunate; pathetic; piteous; pitiable; pitiful; poor; wretched
Context example:
a wretched life
Similar:
unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)
Context examples
They played me a pitiful trick once: got away with some of my best men.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through I am afraid is pitiful.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
But it was “Boats over!” the boom-boom of guns, and the pitiful slaughter through the long day.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
It was pitiful, however, to see his exhaustion.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
To be guided by second-hand conjecture is pitiful.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
You must be pitiful to him, too, though it may not hold your hands from his destruction.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
There is something in the sound of Mr. Edmund Bertram so formal, so pitiful, so younger-brother-like, that I detest it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
“Very little white satin, very few lace veils; a most pitiful business! Selina would stare when she heard of it.”
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
‘How could anyone offer so pitiful a sum to a lady with such attractions and accomplishments?’
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In the same instant he was aware of the pitiful inadequacy of speech.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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