pathetic
Americanadjective
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causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiful; pitiable.
Conditions at the refugee camp were far more pathetic than anything our training had prepared us for.
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Informal. miserably or contemptibly inadequate.
In return for our investment we get a pathetic three percent interest. The carpenter we hired is pathetic.
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Archaic. pertaining to, caused by, or affecting the emotions.
pathetic outbursts.
adjective
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evoking or expressing pity, sympathy, etc
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distressingly inadequate
the old man sat huddled in front of a pathetic fire
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informal ludicrously or contemptibly uninteresting or worthless
the standard of goalkeeping in amateur football today is pathetic
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obsolete of or affecting the feelings
plural noun
Other Word Forms
- hyperpathetic adjective
- hyperpathetically adverb
- pathetically adverb
- patheticalness noun
- quasi-pathetic adjective
- quasi-pathetically adverb
- unpathetic adjective
- unpathetically adverb
Etymology
Origin of pathetic
First recorded in 1590–1600; from Middle French pathétique or from Late Latin pathēticus, from Greek pathētikós “capable of emotion, impassioned, sensitive,” equivalent to pathēt(ós) “subject to suffering; one who has suffered; subject to external influence or change; (in medicine) diseased” (derivative of páschein “to suffer”) + -ikos adjective suffix; -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This statement wasn’t too pathetic on its face, but it came after a question about Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned in protest of the war on March 17.
From Salon
There were the few pathetic mementos of thirty years in other people’s homes.
From Literature
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham called the fine a "pathetic attempt to intimidate workers".
From BBC
But there is no man that is weaker than one who revels in harming others in a pathetic bid to feel bigger.
From Salon
"I am doing my small and pathetic best."
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
