deserving or inciting pity; " 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"; " couldn't rescue the poor fellow"; " his poor distorted limbs"; " a wretched life"

inspiring scornful pity; " how silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years"- Dashiell Hammett

Expressing or showing anger; passionate.

Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story.

Arousing sorrow and pity; touching; as, her grief was pathetic.

Pathetically.

1. Causing an emotion, especially of sorrow or pity. 2. Noting the fourth cranial nerve, nervus patheticus, nervus trochlearis.

Affecting the tender emotions: touching.

Exciting pity; touching.

Touching the feelings; arousing compassion. pathetical.

Affecting or moving the tender passions.

Affecting or moving such passions as pity, sorrow, or grief.

The trochlear nerve and the superior oblique muscle of the eye.

After a wild and melancholy symphony, a voice of more than magic expression swelled into an air so pathetic and tender, that it seemed to breathe the very soul of love. – A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe

And the boy of those days for him was more pathetic than much that is known to the world as sorrow. – The Complete PG Edition of The Works of Winston Churchill by Winston Churchill

Afterwards Madeline listened to the pathetic history of Olive's sorrow. – Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter by Lawrence L. Lynch

But it's rather pathetic really. – A Crooked Mile by Oliver Onions

There was something pathetic in the Vicomte's tone which touched Enguerrand's warm if light heart. – The Parisians, Book 6. by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

I had also a good deal of hospital work, which to me was full of pathetic interest. – With the Guards' Brigade from Bloemfontein to Koomati Poort and Back by Edward P. Lowry

The Man Without a Country would lose his pathetic appeal, or would at any rate lose much of it. – An Inquiry Into The Nature Of Peace And The Terms Of Its Perpetuation by Thorstein Veblen

O pale, pathetic Christ- I worship thee! – The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Vol. I by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Then she added with a pathetic sigh of bitterness: " My father would prefer it, I think. – Petticoat Rule by Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

He was a pathetic figure. – The Trumpeter Swan by Temple Bailey

It was " Ye banks and braes" this time, and when the pathetic old air was ended Salome sighed. – A Double Knot by George Manville Fenn

Rather pathetic, I should say. – The Loom of Youth by Alec Waugh

Her sorrow is, I think, pathetic. – Autobiography of Anthony Trollope by Anthony Trollope

Her pathetic voice recalled him. – Rose MacLeod by Alice Brown

Dickens was in his own time thought to be a master of the pathetic equally with the mirthful strain. – The Age of Tennyson by Hugh Walker

It is a most pathetic case. – Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete The Personal And Literary Life Of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Albert Bigelow Paine Last Updated: February 20, 2009

Both of them looked rather pathetic. – The Woman With The Fan by Robert Hichens

Sometimes, she said, John's so gentle and pathetic that I want to cry. – We Three by Gouverneur Morris

The withered bodies of the children seemed not nearly so pathetic! – The Title Market by Emily Post

Suddenly their eagerness, their excitement, struck her as being pathetic. – Kildares of Storm by Eleanor Mercein Kelly