pitiful

3 definitions • 4 examples

making people feel sympathy:

The refugees arriving at the camp had pitiful stories to tell.

used to say that you consider something to be very bad or not satisfactory or not enough:

a pitiful state of affairs

The amount of time and money being spent on researching this disease is pitiful.

Something described as pitiful is not considered to be satisfactory or deserving of respect:

The party is a pitiful example of an opposition party.