Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character or condition of being piteous or pitiful.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The condition of being piteous

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word piteousness.

Examples

  • You came to her when she was weakest, with your piteousness, your helpless need.

    Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series Cassandra Clare 2009

  • You came to her when she was weakest, with your piteousness, your helpless need.

    The Mortal Instruments: Book One: City of Bones Cassandra Clare 2007

  • But in the eyes of Ruth was none of this — sternly, coldly triumphant, indifferent to its piteousness as Norhala herself, she scanned the waste that less than an hour since had been a place of living beauty.

    The Metal Monster 2004

  • GodFUCKINGdammmittohell, it's the piteousness of these images that is so infuriating, acting like they don't even know what a horrible environment this is, people all over town with decent amounts of money and I just look at them and scream inwardly WHY ARE YOU HERE?

    kinaesthesia Diary Entry kinaesthesia 2001

  • He realised himself that the piteousness wasn't achieving an over-sympathetic response and reacted with a more businesslike explanation.

    Decider Francis, Dick 1993

  • The piteousness of this young wife getting her happiness, all unknowingly, by self-imposed blindness of the inner soul, clutched at his heart.

    Joyce of the North Woods

  • After all, was he not more lovable and more sincere in this little bit of simple craft, used in the piteousness of his appeal, then when he was giving himself the airs of a man-about-town, and talking of women in a fashion which, to do him justice, expressed nothing of his real sentiments?

    Lippincott's Magazine, Volume 11, No. 26, May, 1873 Various

  • She still looked at him with the same piteousness.

    The Cryptogram A Novel James De Mille

  • It added to her sense of living in a deep cell of madness, fathoms below the rays of reason, that she had an illusion that in his eyes she saw just that same change from piteousness to loathing.

    The Judge Rebecca West 1937

  • There fell increasingly moments of silence when, unreminded by his piteousness and her obligations by the good little pipe of her voice, she was aware of nothing but his unpleasantness.

    The Judge Rebecca West 1937

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.