pathetic
- causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiful; pitiable: a pathetic letter; a pathetic sight.
- affecting or moving the emotions.
- pertaining to or caused by the emotions.
- miserably or contemptibly inadequate: In return for our investment we get a pathetic three percent interest.
Origin of pathetic
Synonyms for pathetic
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words for pathetic
poignant, feeble, woeful, heartbreaking, miserable, pitiful, deplorable, sorry, distressing, heartrending, inadequate, lamentable, meager, melting, moving, paltry, petty, piteous, plaintive, poorExamples from the Web for pathetic
Contemporary Examples of pathetic
And we can listen to the pathetic, creepy bravado of a former vice president, wrong on nearly every decision he made.
But this had to be one of the most pathetic presidential wardrobes in American history.
Telling people that you knew her when would just be pathetic.
Fortunately, they are drawn from a pathetic preterite far beneath the contempt of our cultural elite.
Conning people into buying a book to prepare for an "Ebola apocalypse" is not just irresponsible, it's pathetic.
Historical Examples of pathetic
The fate of Owthorne, a village once existing not far from Withernsea, is pathetic.
Yorkshire Painted And DescribedGordon Home
Her fingers were stiff, but so was her will: the way she stuck to her work was pathetic.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
You must have your soup, and (I do not mean to be pathetic) what is soup without salt?
The father looked at Mary with a reproach that was pathetic.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
There was a pathetic pleading in the dulled eyes with which he regarded the Inspector.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
pathetic
- evoking or expressing pity, sympathy, etc
- distressingly inadequatethe old man sat huddled in front of a pathetic fire
- British informal ludicrously or contemptibly uninteresting or worthlessthe standard of goalkeeping in amateur football today is pathetic
- obsolete of or affecting the feelings
- pathetic sentiments
Word Origin for pathetic
Word Origin and History for pathetic
1590s, "affecting the emotions, exciting the passions," from Middle French pathétique "moving, stirring, affecting" (16c.), from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek pathetikos "subject to feeling, sensitive, capable of emotion," from pathetos "liable to suffer," verbal adjective of pathein "to suffer" (see pathos). Meaning "arousing pity, pitiful" is first recorded 1737. Colloquial sense of "so miserable as to be ridiculous" is attested from 1937. Related: Pathetical (1570s); pathetically. Pathetic fallacy (1856, first used by Ruskin) is the attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects.