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Definition of "pitiable" [pit•i•a•ble]

  • Arousing or deserving of pity or compassion; lamentable. (adjective)
  • Arousing disdainful pity. See Synonyms at pathetic. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "pitiable" in a sentence
  • "For the day came when Mulcachy rapped the chair with his whip-butt, when the attendant through the bars jabbed the iron fork into Ben Bolt's ribs, and when Ben Bolt, anything but royal, slinking like a beaten alley-cat, in pitiable terror, crawled over to the chair and sat down in it like a man."
  • "Austen did say the only thing that renders a single women pitiable is poverty, in Emma, I think."
  • "Bolt, anything but royal, slinking like a beaten alley-cat, in pitiable terror, crawled over to the chair and sat down in it like"