pitiful

Word family

pit·i·ful /ˈpɪtɪfəl/ adjectiveadj

1 SAD/UNHAPPYsomeone who is pitiful looks or sounds so sad and unfortunate that you feel very sorry for them 令人同情的，可憐的 → pity

The refugees were a pitiful sight.

難民們看上去真可憐。

2 GOOD ENOUGHa pitiful amount is very small 〔數量〕非常少的

The fee was pitiful – only about £60.

費用相當少——只有60英鎊左右。

3 very bad in quality 〔質量〕非常差的 SYN awful

His performance was pitiful – five goals flew past him.

他的表現很差勁，丢了五個球。

—pitifully adverbadv

The dog was pitifully thin.

那條狗瘦得可憐。

Examples from the Corpus

pitiful• Stu's bass playing is just pitiful.• Serious inroads had now been made into my pitiful cash reserves and tomorrow I would be penniless.• The horses were in a pitiful condition, thin and covered with sores.• I refer, or course, to the pitiful coverage of the Five Nations Championship provided by the corporation.• the pitiful cries of an injured puppy• John looked pitiful, his whole body weak with exhaustion.• Margret looked so pitiful, I had to help her.• How fragile I was, and how pitiful my fears seem now.• My Songhai was pitiful, my Mandarin worse.• The velocity, the sheer power and the technology of the rocket perhaps makes all the more pitiful our meagre destiny.• She would not think of the pitiful remains in the corner.• But what pitiful towns they were.• Did unemployment, economic depression and the General Strike reduce trade unionism to a pitiful weakness?

pitiful sight• She was a pitiful sight, still lying where she had fallen, too terrified to move an inch.

Syllable

Corpus

TOEFL BNC: 14592 COCA: 12810

pitiful

Making you feel sad or upset: sad, unhappy, depressing...

Bad or of a low quality: sad, poor, terribly...

Not enough: inadequate, insufficient, scant...