Adjacent Words

Pity definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PITY, n. [The Latin,Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages unite pity and piety in the same word, and the word may be from the root of compassion; L. patior, to suffer.]
1. The feeling or suffering of one person, excited by the distresses of another; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion or fellow-suffering.
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord. Proverbs 19.
In Scripture however, the word pity usually includes
compassion accompanied with some act of charity or benevolence, and not simply a fellow feeling of distress.
Pity is always painful, yet always agreeable.
2. The ground or subject of pity; cause of grief; thing to be regretted.
What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!
That he is old, the more is the pity, his white hairs do witness it.
In this sense, the word has a plural. It is a thousand pities he should waste his estate in prodigality.
PIT'Y, v.t. To feel pain or grief for one in distress; to have sympathy for; to compassionate; to have tender feelings for one, excited by his unhappiness.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psalms 103.
Taught by that power who pities me,
I learn to pity them.
PIT'Y, v.i. To be compassionate; to exercise pity.
I will not pity nor spare,nor have mercy. Jeremiah 13.
[But this may be considered as an elliptical phrase.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others; "the blind are too often objects of pity" [syn: commiseration, pity, ruth, pathos]
2: an unfortunate development; "it's a pity he couldn't do it" [syn: pity, shame]
3: the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it [syn: compassion, pity] v
1: share the suffering of [syn: feel for, pity, compassionate, condole with, sympathize with]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun (plural pities) Etymology: Middle English pite, from Anglo-French pité, from Latin pietat-, pietas piety, pity, from pius pious Date: 13th century 1. a. sympathetic sorrow for one suffering, distressed, or unhappy b. capacity to feel pity 2. something to be regretted <it's a pity you can't go> Synonyms: pity, compassion, commiseration, condolence, sympathy mean the act or capacity for sharing the painful feelings of another. pity implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress <felt pity for the captives>. compassion implies pity coupled with an urgent desire to aid or to spare <treats the homeless with great compassion>. commiseration suggests pity expressed outwardly in exclamations, tears, or words of comfort <murmurs of commiseration filled the loser's headquarters>. condolence applies chiefly to formal expression of grief to one who has suffered loss <expressed their condolences to the widow>. sympathy often suggests a tender concern but can also imply a power to enter into another's emotional experience of any sort <went to my best friend for sympathy> <in sympathy with her desire to locate her natural parents>. II. verb (pitied; pitying) Date: 15th century transitive verb to feel pity for intransitive verb to feel pity

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. (pl. -ies) 1 sorrow and compassion aroused by another's condition (felt pity for the child). 2 something to be regretted; grounds for regret (what a pity!; the pity of it is that he didn't mean it). --v.tr. (-ies, -ied) feel (often contemptuous) pity for (they are to be pitied; I pity you if you think that). Phrases and idioms: for pity's sake an exclamation of urgent supplication, anger, etc. more's the pity so much the worse. take pity on feel or act compassionately towards. Derivatives: pitying adj. pityingly adv. Etymology: ME f. OF pité f. L pietas (as PIETY)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pity Pit"y, v. i. To be compassionate; to show pity. I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy. --Jer. xiii. 14.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pity Pit"y, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pitied; p. pr. & vb. n. Pitying.] 1. To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. --Ps. ciii. 13. 2. To move to pity; -- used impersonally. [Obs.] It pitieth them to see her in the dust. --Bk. of Com. Prayer.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pity Pit"y, n.; pl. Pities. [OE. pite, OF. pit['e], piti['e], F. piti['e], L. pietas piety, kindness, pity. See Pious, and cf. Piety.] 1. Piety. [Obs.] --Wyclif. 2. A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord. --Prov. xix. 17. He . . . has no more pity in him than a dog. --Shak. 3. A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted. ``The more the pity.'' --Shak. What pity is it That we can die but once to serve our country! --Addison. Note: In this sense, sometimes used in the plural, especially in the colloquialism: ``It is a thousand pities.'' Syn: Compassion; mercy; commiseration; condolence; sympathy, fellow-suffering; fellow-feeling. -- Pity, Sympathy, Compassion. Sympathy is literally fellow-feeling, and therefore requiers a certain degree of equality in situation, circumstances, etc., to its fullest exercise. Compassion is deep tenderness for another under severe or inevitable misfortune. Pity regards its object not only as suffering, but weak, and hence as inferior.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pities, pitying, pitied) 1. If you feel pity for someone, you feel very sorry for them. He felt a sudden tender pity for her... She knew that she was an object of pity among her friends. N-UNCOUNT: oft N for n see also self-pity 2. If you pity someone, you feel very sorry for them. I don't know whether to hate or pity him. VERB: V n 3. If you say that it is a pity that something is the case, you mean that you feel disappointment or regret about it. It is a great pity that all pupils in the city cannot have the same chances... It seemed a pity to let it all go to waste. N-SING: a N, oft it v-link N that/to-inf [feelings] 4. If someone shows pity, they do not harm or punish someone they have power over. One should avoid showing too much pity... 5. If you take pity on someone, you feel sorry for them and help them. No woman had ever felt the need to take pity on him before. PHRASE: V inflects

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pit'-i (chamal, chuc; eleeo): "Pity," probably contracted from "piety," is tender feeling for others in misery or distress. It is allied to compassion (which see), but differs in respect of the object that causes the distress (or feeling). The feeling of pity is excited chiefly by the weakness, miserable or degraded condition of the object; compassion by his uncontrollable and inevitable misfortunes: "We pity a man of weak understanding who exposes his weakness; we compassionate the man who is reduced to a state of beggary and want" (Crabb, English Synonyms). Pity often becomes allied to contempt; "a pity" is something to be regretted. See PITIFUL. In the Old Testament "pity" is closely akin to "mercy." It is most frequently the translation of chamal, "to pity," "to spare," e.g. in Nathan's parable of the poor man's one lamb, it is said that the rich man was worthy to die because he had "no pity" (2Sa 12:6).

In Jer 13:14 we have, "I will not pity nor spare, nor have mercy," the Revised Version (British and American) "compassion"; compare 21:7; La 2:2; Eze 5:11; 7:4, in all of which passages "pity" stands in a negative connection; we have it positively attributed to God in Eze 36:21, "I had pity for mine holy name," the Revised Version (British and American) "regard"; Joe 2:18; chuc, probably meaning, primarily, "to cover," "protect," hence, to pity, to spare, is translated "pity" (De 7:16; 13:8; Eze 16:5, etc., all negative; Jon 4:10, positive: "Thou hast had pity on the gourd (the Revised Version (British and American) "regard for") and should not I spare (the Revised Version (British and American) "have regard for," chuc) Nineveh," etc.); chanan, "to incline, toward," "be gracious," "pity," is thrice rendered "pity" (Job 19:21, "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me"; Pr 19:17; 28:8, "he that hath pity upon the poor"); racham, "to feel warm," "to love," twice (Ps 103:13, "like as a father pitieth his children"; Isa 13:18, "no pity"); once in plural rachamim (Am 1:11); other words once so translated are chemlah, "pity" (Isa 63:9); checedh, "loving-kindness" (Job 6:14, the Revised Version (British and American) "kindness"); machmal, "object of pity" (Eze 24:21); nudh," to move," "bemoan" (Ps 69:20). In the New Testament "pity" occurs once only as the translation of eleeo, "to be kind," "tender" (Mt 18:33, the Revised Version (British and American) "mercy"). In 2 Macc 3:21 we have (the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American)) "pitied" in the obsolete sense of exciting pity, "Then it would have pitied (eleein) a man to see the multitude," etc.

The Revised Version (British and American) has "pity" for "mercy" (Pr 14:21); "have pity on" for "spare" (Ps 72:13); for "favour" (Ps 109:12; 102:13,14), "Have pity upon her dust."

See MERCY; COMPASSION.

W. L. Walker

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Compassion, commiseration, mercy, sympathy, fellow-feeling, fellow-suffering, condolence, bowels of compassion, melting mood. 2. Ground of pity, cause of grief, subject of pity. II. v. a. Commiserate, compassionate, sympathize with, feel for, have pity or compassion for, feel sorry for, condole with.

Foolish Dictionary

An emotion awakened in a man's mind when he beholds the children of a woman who might have married him instead.

Moby Thesaurus

abomination, acceptance, ache, atrocity, be sorry for, bleed, bleed for, chanty, clemency, clementness, commiserate, commiseration, compassion, compassionate, condole with, condolence, crime, dejection, desecration, disgrace, distress, easiness, easygoingness, feel, feel for, feel sorrow for, feel sorry for, forbearance, forbearing, gentleness, humaneness, humanity, ignominy, infamy, lament for, laxness, lenience, leniency, lenientness, lenity, melancholy, mercifulness, mercy, mildness, misfortune, moderateness, patience, profanation, rue, ruth, sacrilege, sadness, scandal, shame, sin, softness, sorrow, sympathize, sympathize with, sympathy, tenderness, terrible thing, tolerance, violation, weep for