pitiable
/ˈpɪtɪəb(ə)l
/adjective
1Deserving or arousing pity: the men were in a pitiable condition...
- In either case, the suffering of the person with MPD is equally pitiable and deserving of our understanding, not derision.
- If some doctors, motivated by pity, help such pitiable individuals to die, do they commit the offence of destroying life or not?
- When these young people return, despite being richer or better educated or both, they still have no pigs, a condition considered pitiable by the older generation.
2Contemptibly poor or small: a pitiable imitation of the real thing...
- Lamenting her partner's pitiable dancing, one of the female characters pleas for a real dancer, and her call is answered by an immodest Balthasar decked out in what appears to be a flashy 1980s-style suit.
- It is pertinent to mention the condition of State finances that are in a pitiable condition.
- The journey is tough as the transportation facility in the region is poor and the roads are in a pitiable condition.
Derivatives
pitiableness
/ noun ...- He had seen grubby, cantankerous men reduced to pitiableness by slighter but nevertheless relentless syndromes, the same shovelled out eye-sockets.
pitiably
/ adverb ...- Meanwhile, the survivors of the genocide - who were pitiably few in number - haunted the country like ghosts.
- The gay characters were presented as suffering from an affliction, or if not, at least as being pitiably different.
- I am terribly sorry, but we are pitiably unprepared to entertain such distinguished company as yourself, your majesty.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French piteable, from piteer 'to pity'.