Adjacent Words

Piteous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PIT'EOUS, a. [See Pity.] Sorrowful; mournful; that may excite pity; as a piteous look.
1. Wretched; miserable; deserving compassion; as a piteous condition.
2. Compassionate; affected by pity.
3. Pitiful; paltry; poor; as piteous amends.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn: hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, wretched]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 14th century of a kind to move to pity or compassion • piteously adverb • piteousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. deserving or causing pity; wretched. Derivatives: piteously adv. piteousness n. Etymology: ME pito(u)s etc. f. AF pitous, OF pitos f. Rmc (as PIETY)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Piteous Pit"e*ous, a. [OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux. See Pity.] 1. Pious; devout. [Obs.] The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation. --Wyclif. 2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender. ``[She] piteous of his case.'' --Pope. She was so charitable and so pitous. --Chaucer. 3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. --Spenser. The most piteous tale of Lear. --Shak. 4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. ``Piteous amends.'' --Milton. Syn: Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful; sad; wretched; miserable; pitiable; pitiful; compassionate. -- Pit"e*ous*ly, adv. -- Pit"e*ous*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is piteous is so sad that you feel great pity for the person involved. (WRITTEN) As they pass by, a piteous wailing is heard. = pitiful ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Sorrowful, mournful, woful, doleful, rueful, affecting, distressing, grievous, moving pity, exciting compassion. 2. Pitiable, deplorable, wretched, miserable, deserving pity, to be pitied, lamentable. 3. Compassionate, tender.

Moby Thesaurus

affecting, afflictive, beseeching, bitter, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, deplorable, depressing, depressive, discomforting, dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, emotional, entreating, grievous, heartrending, imploring, joyless, lamentable, melancholy, miserable, mournful, moving, painful, pathetic, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, regrettable, rueful, ruined, sad, saddening, sharp, sore, sorrowful, supplicating, tearful, touching, uncomfortable, woebegone, woeful, wretched