Piteous

3 definitions found

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

  Piteous \Pit"e*ous\, a. [OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux. See
     {Pity}.]
     1. Pious; devout. [Obs.]
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              The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation.


                                                    --Wyclif.
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     2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate;
        tender. "[She] piteous of his case." --Pope.
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              She was so charitable and so pitous.  --Chaucer.
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     3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable;
        lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case.        --Spenser.
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              The most piteous tale of Lear.        --Shak.
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     4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. "Piteous amends." --Milton.
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     Syn: Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful;
          sad; wretched; miserable; pitiable; pitiful;
          compassionate.
          [1913 Webster] -- {Pit"e*ous*ly}, adv. --
          {Pit"e*ous*ness}, n.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  piteous
       adj : 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}, {pathetic}, {pitiable}, {pitiful}, {poor},
              {wretched}]

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

  53 Moby Thesaurus words for "piteous":
     affecting, afflictive, beseeching, bitter, bleak, cheerless,
     comfortless, deplorable, depressing, depressive, discomforting,
     dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorific,
     dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, emotional, entreating, grievous,
     heartrending, imploring, joyless, lamentable, melancholy,
     miserable, mournful, moving, painful, pathetic, pitiable, pitiful,
     plaintive, poignant, poor, regrettable, rueful, ruined, sad,
     saddening, sharp, sore, sorrowful, supplicating, tearful, touching,
     uncomfortable, woebegone, woeful, wretched