piteousadj/ˈpɪ.ti.əs/

• 1

  Provoking pity, compassion, or sympathy.

  • […] with his strong arms He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out As he’d burst heaven; threw him on my father; Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him That ever ear receiv’d;
  • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne & Son and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 4, p. 51, […] my strength, madam, is almost all gone away, and when I do any hard work, it’s quite a piteous sight to see me, for I am all in a tremble after it, just as if I had an ague […]
• 2

  obsoleteShowing devotion to God.

  • For the Lord kan delyuere piteuouse men fro temptacioun, and kepe wickid men in to the dai of dom to be turmentid;
• 3

  obsoleteShowing compassion.

  • Thine eye begins to speak; set thy tongue there; Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear; That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce, Pity may move thee ‘pardon’ to rehearse.
  • The water Nymphs that in the bottome playd Held up their pearled wrists and tooke her in, Bearing her straite to aged Nereus hall Who piteous of her woes rea[r’]d her lanke head, And gave her to his daughters to imbathe In nectar’d lavers strewd with asphodil,
• 4

  obsoleteOf little importance or value.

  • […] calling to minde with heed Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe Satan,
  • […] my Business was now to try if I could not make Jackets out of the great Watch-Coats which I had by me, and with such other Materials as I had, so I set to Work a Taylering, or rather indeed a Botching, for I made most piteous Work of it.