What does "pitiful" mean?
Pitiful: 2. Piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion. A thing, indeed, very pitiful and horrible. Spenser.
Additional senses
- 2.To be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable; paltry; contemptible; despicable. That's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Shak. See Contemptible. -- Pit"i*ful*ly, adv. -- Pit"i*ful*ness, n.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00