as in pitiful
deserving of one's pity
a piteous beggar huddled in the doorway of an abandoned building
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Recent Examples of piteous
An old woman and an old man, innocent as lambs, clambering over rubble with their piteous backpacks and bundles.
—
David Bezmozgis, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
Subjects set up as snakes in the grass are given piteous endings.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2025
Subjects set up as snakes in the grass are given piteous endings.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2025
The word integral seemed to me particularly poignant, piteous.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
Because the Grammys telecast draws generations of viewers, and because Grammy voters are drawn from a wide pool that skews older, what emerges on the show, and in the awards themselves, is a kind of piteous compromise that holds real innovation at bay.
—New York Times, 4 Apr. 2022
Later, Ivy interrogates Felix about having strayed dangerously from the straight-and-narrow, a confrontation that is agonizing to watch, as Mr. Torres’s performance gains in both piteous despair and angry ferocity.
—Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2022
In roaring luxury markets from Manhattan to San Francisco over the past few years, buyers were a piteous bunch.
—Katy McLaughlin, WSJ, 6 Mar. 2019
David Bezmozgis, New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
Subjects set up as snakes in the grass are given piteous endings.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2025
Subjects set up as snakes in the grass are given piteous endings.
—Ben Travers, IndieWire, 20 Feb. 2025
The word integral seemed to me particularly poignant, piteous.
—Joyce Carol Oates, Harper's Magazine, 10 July 2023
Because the Grammys telecast draws generations of viewers, and because Grammy voters are drawn from a wide pool that skews older, what emerges on the show, and in the awards themselves, is a kind of piteous compromise that holds real innovation at bay.
—New York Times, 4 Apr. 2022
Later, Ivy interrogates Felix about having strayed dangerously from the straight-and-narrow, a confrontation that is agonizing to watch, as Mr. Torres’s performance gains in both piteous despair and angry ferocity.
—Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2022
In roaring luxury markets from Manhattan to San Francisco over the past few years, buyers were a piteous bunch.
—Katy McLaughlin, WSJ, 6 Mar. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for piteous
Adjective
-
So many of the latter comes thanks to Niecy Nash’s Nurse DiDi, who seems to take the time to see her patients as worthwhile much more often than her cohorts, the self-important Dr. Jenna James (Laurie Metcalf) and pitiful nurse Dawn (Alex Borstein).—
Maggie Fremont,
Vulture,
21 Apr. 2025
-
Look, everyone points to injuries as the reason for the pitiful performance so far this season, but a lot of teams are dealing with injuries.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
21 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Kenney-Silver delivers a touchingly nuanced performance as Anne, balanced on the fine line between sad as in devastated and sad as in pathetic.—
Angie Han,
HollywoodReporter,
1 May 2025
-
Marathon needs to be given every possible chance to succeed and making Bungie crunch to fix things and throwing it into the wolves as a fall release (one that’s literally on the same day as Borderlands 4, mind you) would be a pathetic excuse for support.—
Paul Tassi,
Forbes.com,
28 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Consumer spending softened, increasing 1.8%, down from a 4% rise in the fourth quarter, but a decent performance in light of stock market turmoil and poor weather early in the quarter.—
Paul Davidson,
USA Today,
1 May 2025
-
Director of football Jon Rudkin is the man most hold accountable for the recent poor recruitment record.—
Rob Tanner,
New York Times,
30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
The fighting has spawned one of the world's most wretched humanitarian disasters.—
Brittney Melton,
NPR,
28 Apr. 2025
-
The seventh-seeded Warriors entered Tuesday night’s game at Chase Center looking to move past their wretched play-in past.—
Joseph Dycus,
Mercury News,
16 Apr. 2025
Adjective
-
Their defensive game plan was clearly to make Kucherov’s life miserable, and the defending champions succeeded mightily.—
Josh Yohe,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
-
Wall Street racked up yet one more miserable day in a month of miserable days on April 21, once again seeing a sizable selloff in both the stock market and the bond market, as the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 2.36% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.48%.—
Susan Tompor,
USA Today,
29 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Piteous.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/piteous. Accessed 12 May. 2025.
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