pitifulpit‧i‧ful /ˈpɪtɪfəl/ adjective 
The refugees were a pitiful sight.2a pitiful amount is very small: The fee was pitiful – only about £60.3very bad in quality SYN awful: His performance was pitiful – five goals flew past him.—pitifully adverb: The dog was pitifully thin.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- John looked pitiful, his whole body weak with exhaustion.
- Margret looked so pitiful, I had to help her.
- Stu's bass playing is just pitiful.
- the pitiful cries of an injured puppy
- The horses were in a pitiful condition, thin and covered with sores.
- But what pitiful towns they were.
- Did unemployment, economic depression and the General Strike reduce trade unionism to a pitiful weakness?
- How fragile I was, and how pitiful my fears seem now.
- I refer, or course, to the pitiful coverage of the Five Nations Championship provided by the corporation.
- My Songhai was pitiful, my Mandarin worse.
- Serious inroads had now been made into my pitiful cash reserves and tomorrow I would be penniless.
- She would not think of the pitiful remains in the corner.
- The velocity, the sheer power and the technology of the rocket perhaps makes all the more pitiful our meagre destiny.
Longman Language Activatorrelating to someone who is so unlucky, so unhappy etc that you feel sorry for them
especially spoken use this to talk to or about someone that you feel sorry for: · The poor girl gets blamed for everything that goes wrong.· Poor baby. Come here and let me give you a cuddle.poor old informal: · I hear poor old Steve broke his ankle.
a pitiful person looks or sounds very sad and unlucky and you feel very sorry for them: · John looked pitiful, his whole body weak with exhaustion.· the pitiful cries of an injured puppy· The horses were in a pitiful condition, thin and covered with sores.
someone who is pathetic is someone that you feel sorry for even though you often also have no respect for them: · There is something pathetic about a 40-year-old man who still has his mother do his laundry.· Yang looked at me with a pathetic expression on his face.· We found a small dog sitting outside the back door, looking pathetic.
someone who is wretched is very unhappy or unlucky, so that you feel very sorry for them - used especially in literature: · With a violent drunkard for a husband, he thought, that wretched woman must lead a life of terror.· Billy lay on the bed, wretched and close to tears.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY The refugees were a pitiful sight.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSNOUN
1someone who is pitiful looks or sounds so sad and unfortunate that you feel very sorry for them: The refugees were a pitiful sight.· She was a pitiful sight, still lying where she had fallen, too terrified to move an inch.
The refugees were a pitiful sight.2a pitiful amount is very small: The fee was pitiful – only about £60.3very bad in quality SYN awful: His performance was pitiful – five goals flew past him.—pitifully adverb: The dog was pitifully thin.