piteous

From Middle English pitous, from Old French piteus, pitus.

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piteous (comparative more piteous, superlative most piteous)

1. Provoking pity, compassion, or sympathy.

   Synonyms: heartbreaking, heartrending, lamentable, pathetic, pitiful

   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     […] with his strong arms
     He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out
     As he’d burst heaven; threw him on my father;
     Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
     That ever ear receiv’d;

   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne & Son and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 4, p. 51,

     my strength, madam, is almost all gone away, and when I do any hard work, it’s quite a piteous sight to see me, for I am all in a tremble after it, just as if I had an ague

   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom. , New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan , →OCLC:

     In the deep, still darkness of midnight, I have been often aroused by the dead, heavy footsteps and the piteous cries of the chained gangs that passed our door.

   • 1931, Pearl S. Buck, chapter 11, in The Good Earth‎, New York: Modern Library, published 1944, pages 80–81:

     “ […] you go out to beg, first smearing yourself with mud and filth to make yourselves as piteous as you can.”

2. (obsolete) Showing devotion to God.

   Synonyms: devout, pious

   • c. 1382–1395, John Wycliffe [et al.], edited by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, The Holy Bible, , volume (please specify |volume=I, II, III, or IV), Oxford: At the University Press, published 1850, →OCLC, II. Peter 2:9:

     For the Lord kan delyuere piteuouse men fro temptacioun, and kepe wickid men in to the dai of dom to be turmentid;

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (obsolete) Showing compassion.

   Synonyms: compassionate, tender

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Thine eye begins to speak; set thy tongue there;
     Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;
     That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,
     Pity may move thee ‘pardon’ to rehearse.

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634:  [Comus], London: [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, , published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus:  (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC, page 29:

     The water Nymphs that in the bottome playd
     Held up their pearled wrists and tooke her in,
     Bearing her straite to aged Nereus hall
     Who piteous of her woes rea[r’]d her lanke head,
     And gave her to his daughters to imbathe
     In nectar’d lavers strewd with asphodil,

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     1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the Second”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. , Dublin, London: A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 21:

     With that the Goddess (piteous of his case,
     Yet smiling at his ruful length of face)
     Gives him a cov’ring,

   • 1783, William Blake, “An Imitation of Spenser”, in Poetical Sketches‎, London: Basil Montagu Pickering, published 1868, page 37:

     Or have they soft piteous eyes beheld
     The weary wanderer thro’ the desert rove?
     Or does th’ afflicted man thy heavenly bosom move?

4. (obsolete) Of little importance or value.

   Synonyms: miserable, paltry, pathetic, mean, pitiful

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 1030-1034:

     […] calling to minde with heed
     Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise
     The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless
     Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe
     Satan,

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, , London: W Taylor , →OCLC, pages 158-159:

     […] my Business was now to try if I could not make Jackets out of the great Watch-Coats which I had by me, and with such other Materials as I had, so I set to Work a Taylering, or rather indeed a Botching, for I made most piteous Work of it.

• dispiteous
• impiteous
• piteously
• pitiable
• pitiful
• pitisome

• poustie