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Meaning of PITEOUS

Pronunciation:  'piteeus

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: [adj]  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"; "couldn't rescue the poor fellow"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life"
 
 Synonyms: hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, pitiable, pitiful, poor, unfortunate, wretched
 

 

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
\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.
 
Thesaurus Terms
 
 Related Terms: 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
 

 

 

 

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