pathetic

pa·thet·ic

adjective \pə-ˈthe-tik\

Definition of PATHETIC

1

: having a capacity to move one to either compassionate or contemptuous pity

2

: marked by sorrow or melancholy : sad

3

: pitifully inferior or inadequate <the restaurant's pathetic service>

4

: absurd, laughable <a pathetic costume>

— pa·thet·i·cal \-ti-kəl\ adjective

— pa·thet·i·cal·ly \-ti-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

Examples of PATHETIC

1. The blind, old dog was a pathetic sight.
2. The team was pretty bad last year, but this year they're downright pathetic.
3. The story he told was a pathetic attempt to cover up a lie.
4. His car is a pathetic piece of junk.
5. The spectacle seen in the theater of the news presented the American President as a failed suppliant instead of a conquering hero—an ailing and pathetic figure dismissed with the smile of pity and the gift of some sweet candies shaped as miniature sculptures of the President's two dogs. —Lewis H. Lapham, Harper's, March 1992
6. They were brave, and bravely she served them a pathetic meal of nothing but limitless bowls of little potatoes boiled in their jackets … —M.F.K. Fisher, With Bold Knife and Fork, 1969
7. Her face looked pale and extinguished, as if dimmed by the rich red of her dress. She struck Archer, of a sudden, as a pathetic and even pitiful figure. —Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence, 1920

Origin of PATHETIC

Middle French or Late Latin; Middle French pathetique, from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek pathētikos capable of feeling, pathetic, from paschein (aor. pathein) to experience, suffer — more at pathos

First Known Use: 1598

Related to PATHETIC

Synonyms

heartbreaking, heartrending, miserable, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, rueful, sorry, wretched

Antonyms

cheering, cheery, glad, happy

Related Words

deplorable, lamentable, regrettable; emotional, impressive, inspiring; affecting, moving, poignant, stirring, touching; awful, horrible, terrible; distressing, disturbing, upsetting; grievous, mournful, sad, sorrowful, woeful

Near Antonyms

unimpressive, uninspiring

See Synonym Discussion at moving

Rhymes with PATHETIC

aesthetic, ascetic, athletic, balletic, bathetic, cometic, cosmetic, eidetic, emetic, frenetic, gametic, genetic, hermetic, limnetic, magnetic, mimetic, noetic, Ossetic, paretic, phenetic, phonetic, phyletic, poetic, prophetic, prosthetic, pyretic, splenetic, syncretic, syndetic, synthetic, tonetic, Venetic