pitiful

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

, adj. compassionate (See pity);deplorable, disreputable, pitiable, wretched; lamentable, piteous, paltry. See badness, contempt, disrepute.

II

(Roget's IV) modif.

1. [Affecting]

Syn. pathetic, pitiable, piteous, affecting, miserable, mournful, sad, sorrowful, woeful, distressed, distressing, cheerless, comfortless, lamentable, deplorable, joyless, dismal, touching, moving, stirring, arousing, poignant, heartbreaking, human, dramatic, tearful, heart-rending, depressing, afflicting, afflicted, suffering, poor, forlorn, wretched; see also sad 2 .

Ant. happy*, cheerful, joyful.

2. [Contemptibly inadequate]

Syn. wretched, pathetic, paltry, contemptible; see inadequate 1 , poor 2 , sorry 2 .

Syn.- pitiful applies to that which arouses or deserves pity because it is sad, pathetic, etc. [ the suffering of the starving children was pitiful] , but is often used now to imply contemptible inadequacy [ a pitiful amount ] ; pitiable emphasizes the deserving, rather than the arousing, of pity, and may also suggest a greater or lesser degree of contempt mingled with commiseration [ their situation was pitiable] ; piteous stresses the nature of the thing calling for pity rather than its influence on the observer [piteous groans ]

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) a.

pathetic, piteous, pitiable, miserable, wretched, sad, heartrending, heartbreaking, sorry, low, deplorable, grievous, lamentable.

ANT.: happy, joyful, bright, humorous

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) adjective 1. Arousing or deserving pity: pathetic, piteous, pitiable, poor, rueful, ruthful. See PITY. 2. Archaic. Feeling or expressing pity: commiserative, compassionate, condolatory, pitying, sympathetic. Archaic: piteous. See FEELINGS, PITY.