FluentPlex

pitiful

/ˈpɪt.ɪ.fl̩/ adjective C1
  1. So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity. · Scotland has a pitiful climate.
  2. Eliciting contempt.
  3. Of an amount or number: very small. · A pitiful number of students bothered to turn up.

Comparative pitifuller · Superlative pitifullest

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From the library

“I wish I might take this for a compliment; but to be so easily seen through, I am afraid, is pitiful.”
Pride and Prejudice, p. 45 · B2
Come, let me see the list of the pitiful fellows who have been kept aloof by Lydia’s folly.”
Pride and Prejudice, p. 261 · B2
Noirtier the unwelcome meal that sustains his pitiful existence.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 520 · C1
“Thus I shall rejoice when Mademoiselle Eugénie perceives I am but a pitiful atom, with scarcely as many hundred thousand francs as she has millions.” Monte Cristo smiled.
The Count of Monte Cristo, p. 703 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.