How to Use pitiable in a Sentence

pitiable

adjective

• The rest of the film puts his madness on plain and pitiable display.
  — John Hirschauer, National Review, 12 Oct. 2019
• Tanya is too pitiable to die in a comedy; Mark is too vapid to go in a drama.
  — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 11 July 2021
• Those who love spicy food might find these behaviors pitiable.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 27 Mar. 2021
• That grit and those guts made what one of Smith’s long-ago coaches in San Francisco said about him both pitiable and laughable.
  — Gordon Monson, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Apr. 2021
• Robinette is a model of dignity in a role that in lesser hands might seem pitiable.
  — Peter Marks, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2023
• The inhabitants came to the rescue, and treated the pitiable survivors with kindness.
  — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 13 June 2019
• Their offensive line gave Jackson a clean pocket against a pitiable pass rush.
  — Childs Walker, baltimoresun.com, 21 Dec. 2020
• What the Bachelorette needs to be above all is a woman the audience wants to root for—pitiable, but not pathetic.
  — Mattie Kahn, Glamour, 10 July 2018
• Still, none of this makes Cunanan comprehensible or, when all is said and done, pitiable.
  — Tom Gliatto, PEOPLE.com, 17 Jan. 2018
• Wilson puts most of his aw-shucks charm to the side to play this spacey wannabe, portraying Eli instead with a pitiable whine or some far-out detachment.
  — Joe Reid, Vulture, 26 June 2023
• To watch him melt down at evening’s end is a spectacle at once shocking and pitiable—and totally believable.
  — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 23 Jan. 2020
• But when that friend overdosed, the user was suddenly no longer a pitiable drug addict but an evil murderer.
  — Josie Duffy Rice, The Atlantic, 12 July 2018
• What a joy it's been watching Colin Farrell discover his gift for playing sad, foolish, and pitiable men.
  — A.a. Dowd, Chron, 27 Oct. 2022
• Heck, even polar bears, once held out as the pitiable victims of global warming, aren’t being driven to extinction.
  — Rich Lowry, National Review, 22 Dec. 2020
• Admittedly, Oldman’s Mank — like the real one — is a pitiable figure.
  — Mike Scott, NOLA.com, 8 Dec. 2020
• The dogs will walk back and forth along the circumference of their pitiable circle, compulsively, like death-row inmates pacing their cells.
  — Gene Weingarten, Washington Post, 8 Nov. 2021
• There’ll also be a dunk tank with a pitiable fan in pinstripes being plunged every time someone with the accuracy of Kelly hits the target.
  — Mark Shanahan, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Apr. 2018
• And for a while, the murders provide good, amoral fun—because a computer chip is doing all the work, Grey can remain a sympathetic, even pitiable hero.
  — Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader, 14 June 2018
• One of the most pitiable characters in contemporary theater, her struggle at the hands of a succession of brutal and abusive men, is the very heart and soul of the musical.
  — Theodore P. Mahne, NOLA.com, 21 Feb. 2018
• This swerving tone—from blithe to pitiable, humorous to harrowing—works well in the books, when we are glued to Patrick’s side and treated to his acid tongue and exquisite descriptions.
  — Rachel Syme, The New Republic, 17 May 2018
• But as with most of Binoche’s vulnerable characters, Tereza is never pitiable.
  — Susan Dominus Photographs By Joshua Kissi Styled By Ian Bradley Sasha Weiss Photographs By Collier Schorr Styled By Jay Massacret Megan O’Grady Portrait By Mickalene Thomas and Racquel Chevremont Ligaya Mishan Photographs By Tina Barney, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2021
• Northern Ireland is treated like a foreign country in mainland news reports, but an obscure and pitiable one.
  — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 10 Feb. 2018
• What makes a village like Kyamajaka seem so pitiable, and a town like Bulindi seem so important, is that in those two places the future has arrived.
  — David Quammen, National Geographic, 8 Nov. 2019
• The book vividly describes one of Carrère’s fellow-volunteers in Leros—an American woman who’s a little lost and pitiable, like the fake victim of the 2015 attacks.
  — Ian Parker, The New Yorker, 4 July 2022
• We’re shown that being alone is never a choice but rather is unfortunate, depressing, shameful, or pitiable.
  — Stefanie Groner, Glamour, 27 Jan. 2021
• The once-pitiable Rosen completed pass after pass, sparking a furious rally.
  — Ben Bolch, latimes.com, 13 Sep. 2017
• Cesira’s circumstances may be pitiable, but her character isn’t.
  — Jess Bergman, The New Yorker, 8 Nov. 2023
• Soon the grizzled features resolve into something pitiable and arresting, a bleak mirror.
  — Rachel Cusk, Harper's Magazine, 27 Sep. 2023
• Remember that Nike spoof, Eris running shoes, about a pitiable boy who works in a sweatshop and accidentally sews his hands together?
  — Ade D. Adeniji, Wired, 27 Oct. 2021
• This bizarre development renders Maladie more of a distraction than a bona fide threat — destructive yet pitiable, too.
  — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 18 Apr. 2021

Last Updated: 20 Dec 2024