Pathetic

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Pathetic \Pa*thet"ic\ (p[.a]*th[e^]t"[i^]k), a. [L. patheticus,
     Gr. paqhtiko`s, fr. paqei^n, pa`schein, to suffer: cf. F.
     path['e]tique. See {Pathos}.]
     1. Expressing or showing anger; passionate. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or
        grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story.
        "Pathetic action." --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              No theory of the passions can teach a man to be
              pathetic.                             --E. Porter.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Pathetic muscle} (Anat.), the superior oblique muscle of the
        eye.
  
     {Pathetic nerve} (Anat.), the fourth cranial, or trochlear,
        nerve, which supplies the superior oblique, or pathetic,
        muscle of the eye.
  
     {The pathetic}, a style or manner adapted to arouse the
        tender emotions.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  pathetic
       adj 1: 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"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor
              distorted limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn: {hapless}, {miserable},
               {misfortunate}, {piteous}, {pitiable}, {pitiful}, {poor},
               {wretched}]
       2: inspiring mixed contempt and pity; "their efforts were
          pathetic"; "pitiable lack of character"; "pitiful
          exhibition of cowardice" [syn: {pitiable}, {pitiful}]
       3: inspiring scornful pity; "how silly an ardent and
          unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on
          in years"- Dashiell Hammett [syn: {ridiculous}, {silly}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  87 Moby Thesaurus words for "pathetic":
     affecting, affective, afflictive, beggarly, beneath contempt,
     bitter, bleak, cheap, cheerless, cheesy, comfortless, common,
     contemptible, crummy, deplorable, depressing, depressive,
     despicable, discomforting, dismal, dismaying, distressful,
     distressing, doleful, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary,
     emotional, emotive, feeble, gaudy, gimcracky, grievous,
     heartrending, inadequate, joyless, lamentable, mean, measly,
     meretricious, miserable, mournful, moving, painful, paltry, petty,
     piddling, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor,
     puny, regrettable, rubbishy, rueful, sad, saddening, scrubby,
     scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, shabby, sharp, shoddy, sore,
     sorrowful, sorry, stirring, touching, tragic, trashy, trumpery,
     two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny,
     uncomfortable, valueless, vile, woebegone, woeful, worthless,
     wretched