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
-
No other governor, remember, has tried to pull off this pathetic budget stunt.—
Joe Soucheray,
Twin Cities,
10 May 2025
-
In his last, most pathetic years, Mark Twain threw himself behind the crackpot theory that the true author of Shakespeare’s plays may have been Francis Bacon.—
Graeme Wood,
The Atlantic,
9 May 2025
Adjective
-
Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns each added 23 points and OG Anunoby bounced back from two poor performances by scoring 20 for the Knicks, who can win the series Wednesday night at Boston.—
Brian Mahoney,
Baltimore Sun,
13 May 2025
-
Boston built big second-half leads on New York in both Games 1 and 2 at home, but squandered them due to uncharacteristically poor 3-point shooting.—
Tyler Everett,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 May 2025
Adjective
-
Twain’s wife, Olivia Langdon, bore him four children, only one of whom escaped a wretched end.—
Graeme Wood,
The Atlantic,
9 May 2025
-
Roaches and a wretched food truck inspection lowlight this week’s list of South Florida restaurants shut down by state inspection.—
David J. Neal,
Miami Herald,
9 May 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 18 May. 2025.
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