[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

pitiful \pit"iful\, a.
   1. full of pity; tender-hearted; compassionate; kind;
      merciful; sympathetic.
      1913 webster

            the lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
                                                  --james v. 11.
      1913 webster

   2. piteous; lamentable; eliciting compassion.
      1913 webster

            a thing, indeed, very pitiful and horrible.
                                                  --spenser.
      1913 webster

   3. to be pitied for littleness or meanness; miserable;
      paltry; contemptible; despicable.
      1913 webster

            that's villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition
            in the fool that uses it.             --shak.
      1913 webster

   syn: despicable; mean; paltry. see contemptible.
        1913 webster -- pit"ifully, adv. --
        pit"ifulness, n.
        1913 webster
see also:
contemptible pit"ifully pit"ifulness 

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

pitiful
     adj 1: inspiring mixed contempt and pity; "their efforts were
            pathetic"; "pitiable lack of character"; "pitiful
            exhibition of cowardice" syn: pathetic, pitiable
     2: bad; unfortunate; "my finances were in a deplorable state";
        "a lamentable decision"; "her clothes were in sad shape";
        "a sorry state of affairs" syn: deplorable, distressing,
         lamentable, sad, sorry
     3: 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";
        "oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a
        wretched life" syn: hapless, miserable, misfortunate,
         pathetic, piteous, pitiable, poor, wretched
see also:
pathetic pitiable deplorable distressing lamentable sad 
sorry hapless miserable misfortunate piteous 
poor wretched 

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

118 moby thesaurus words for "pitiful":
   abominable, affecting, arrant, atrocious, awful, base, beastly,
   beggarly, beneath contempt, beneath one, blameworthy, brutal,
   cheap, cheesy, common, contemptible, crummy, debasing, degrading,
   demeaning, deplorable, despicable, detestable, dire, disgraceful,
   disgusting, doleful, dreadful, egregious, enormous, fetid, filthy,
   flagrant, foul, fulsome, gaudy, gimcracky, grievous, gross, gutter,
   hateful, heartrending, heinous, horrible, horrid, humiliating,
   humiliative, infamous, infra dig, infra indignitatem,
   insignificant, lamentable, little, loathsome, lousy, mean,
   meretricious, miserable, monstrous, moving, nasty, nefarious,
   noisome, notorious, obnoxious, odious, offensive, opprobrious,
   outrageous, paltry, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, poor, rank,
   regrettable, reprehensible, repulsive, rotten, rubbishy, rueful,
   sad, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy,
   shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, small, sordid, sorry, squalid,
   terrible, too bad, touching, trashy, trifling, trumpery,
   two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny,
   unbecoming, unclean, unimportant, unworthy of one, valueless, vile,
   villainous, woeful, worst, worthless, wretched

[4] : THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)

pitiful, adj.  the state of an enemy of opponent after an imaginary
encounter with oneself.

Pitiful >> P Words
Pitiful, definition of term: Pitiful
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