piteous Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite deserving or inciting pity
    poor; wretched; pathetic; pitiable; misfortunate; miserable; pitiful; hapless.
    • a hapless victim
    • miserable victims of war
    • the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy
    • piteous appeals for help
    • pitiable homeless children
    • a pitiful fate
    • Oh, you poor thing
    • his poor distorted limbs
    • a wretched life

WordNet

Pit"e*ous adjective
Etymology
OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux. See Pity.
Definitions
  1. Pious; devout. Obs.
    The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation. Wyclif.
  2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender. "[She] piteous of his case." Pope.
    She was so charitable and so pitous. Chaucer.
  3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. Spenser.
    The most piteous tale of Lear. Shak.
  4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. "Piteous amends." Milton. Syn. -- Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful; sad; wretched; miserable; pitiable; pitiful; compassionate. -- Pit"e*ous*ly, adv. -- Pit"e*ous*ness, n.

Webster 1913