• Pity

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /ˈpɪti/
    • Rhymes: -ɪti

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    From Anglo-Norman pité, pittee etc., from Old French pitet, pitié, from Latin pietās.

    Full definition of pity

    Noun

    pity

    (countable and uncountable; plural pitys)
    1. (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
      • Bible, Proverbs xix. 17He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
      • ShakespeareHe ... has no more pity in him than a dog.
      • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Folio Society 2006, p. 5:The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offended ... is, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty.
    2. (countable) Something regrettable.It's a pity you're feeling unwell because there's a party on tonight.
      • Laurence SterneIt was a thousand pities.
      • AddisonWhat pity is it
        That we can die but once to serve our country!
    3. (obsolete) piety

    Synonyms

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To feel pity for (someone or something). from 15th c.
      • Bible, Psalms ciii. 13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
    2. (transitive, now regional) To make (someone) feel pity; to provoke the sympathy or compassion of. from 16th c.
      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.11:She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee;
        That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.
      • Book of Common PrayerIt pitieth them to see her in the dust.

    Interjection

    1. Short form of what a pity.
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