pitiful

pitiful, piteous, pitiable are comparable but not always interchangeable when they mean arousing or deserving pity or compassion.

Pitiful applies especially to what actually excites pity or, sometimes, commiseration because it is felt to be deeply pathetic

{

their distress was pitiful

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{

a long line of pitiful refugees

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{

her face looked pale and extinguished. . . . She struck Archer, of a sudden, as a pathetic and even pitiful figure—Wharton

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But pitiful may apply to something meriting pity or commiseration less as pathetic than as contemptible, especially in its inadequacy

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a pitiful attempt at housekeeping

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{

a pitiful wage scale

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Piteous implies not so much an effect on the observer as a quality in the thing that excites pity; thus, a cry is piteous if it implores or demands attention or pity; it is pitiful only if it actually excites pity; one may scorn a piteous appeal, but it would be a contradiction in terms to scorn a pitiful appeal

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Cashel cast a glance round, half piteous, half desperate, like a hunted animal— Shaw

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Pitiable (see also CONTEMPTIBLE) may be preferred to pitiful when a contemptuous commiseration is implied, but contempt may be weakly or strongly connoted

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that pitiable husk of a man who a hundred years ago was a familiar figure in its streets, a shadow of his former inso-lence and splendor— Lucas

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{

felt a tender pity . . . mixed with shame for having made her pitiable— Malamud

}

Analogous words: touching, *moving, pathetic, affecting: *tender, compassionate, responsive, sympathetic

Antonyms: cruel