PITIFUL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pitiful

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/pˈɪtəfəl/ Listen

adjective

Pitiful adj.

Full of pity; tender-hearted; compassionate; kind; merciful; sympathetic. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."

Piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion. "A thing, indeed, very pitiful and horrible."

To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable. "That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it."

Synonyms: Despicable; mean; paltry. See Contemptible.

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Etymology of 'Pitiful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pitiful" Quotes from Famous Books

... a mean pitiful scoundrel!" cried the heart-broken Algernon, crushing the unfeeling letter in his hand, and flinging it with violence from him. "But I deserved to be treated with contempt, when I could so far forget ...

— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie

... know it! If I have betrayed Thy interests, or brought Thy Name to shame, teach me in the sharpest tones and flames of Thy anger, for I need a monitor; and where shall I find so loving or so truthful a monitor as Thou? Alas! how weak and pitiful I am, and how this poor unsubdued nature of mine craves for things beyond Thee! I know there is no truth but in Thee,—no sincerity, no constancy. I know what men are; how deceitful in their words; how unkind in their judgments. Yet this lower being within my being forever stretches out its ...

— My New Curate • P.A. Sheehan

... was Madame de Fruges, that old gentlewoman who was so often seen sauntering in the enclosure. The first used to come to his apartment in the daytime, and he went by night to visit the other, who was but the pitiful cast-off of Buckingham and Epienne. The two confidants introduced him there in coloured clothes; for they had made up a hasty peace, to which Madame de Guemenee nearly ...

— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... which makes you shrink from a more bold and open reproof, remember much may be done to discountenance sin, by the silent holiness of demeanor which refuses to smile at the unholy allusion or ribald jest. "A word spoken in due season, how good is it!" "Speak gently," yet speak faithfully: "be pitiful—be courteous:" yet "quit you ...

— The Mind of Jesus • John R. Macduff

... the Teluga school-teacher was outside, when he became interested in a novel sight. A frog was hopping along the front veranda, with an immense cobra chasing it. The serpent struck at it repeatedly, but the fugitive, in its desperation, eluded each blow, giving utterance to pitiful cries, as a frog will do when ...

— The Jungle Fugitives • Edward S. Ellis

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