piteously
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English piteuously, pitously; equivalent to piteous + -ly.
Adverb[edit]
piteously (comparative more piteously, superlative most piteously)
- In a piteous manner; pathetically; plaintively.
- 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave I. Marley’s Ghost.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, pages 36–37:
- He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a door-step.
- 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 5:
- Across her mind, and bowing over him,
Low to her own heart piteously she said:
- 1929, Robert Dean Frisbee, The Book of Puka-Puka, Eland, published 2019, page 194:
- Little Sea and Desire would wail piteously over my body for a day, and then I should be quickly forgotten.
- 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 132:
- Adam himself bewildered and Eveless outside the garden; a Minotaur howling piteously in a labyrinth of money-worries.