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pitiful
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English pityful, piteful, piteeful. By surface analysis, pit(i) + -ful.
Pronunciation
Adjective
pitiful (comparative pitifuller, superlative pitifullest)
- So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:lamentable
- Scotland has a pitiful climate.
- Of an amount or number: very small.
- A pitiful number of students bothered to turn up.
- (archaic) Feeling pity; merciful.
- c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], signature D3, verso:
- Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- Straightway, he now goes on to make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful.
Related terms
Translations
so appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it
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of an amount or number: very small
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adverb
pitiful (comparative more pitiful, superlative most pitiful)
- (colloquial, dialect) In a pitiful manner; pitifully; piteously; pathetically.
- 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, London: Penguin Books, published 1994, page 194:
- ‘She followed ’em, cryin’ pitiful, to the old boat on the Wall[.]’
Translations
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