Lexic.us

Definition of Pathetic

1. Adjective. Deserving or inciting pity. "A wretched life"

2. Adjective. Inspiring mixed contempt and pity. "Pitiful exhibition of cowardice"

3. Adjective. Inspiring scornful pity. "How silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years"

Definition of Pathetic

1. a. Expressing or showing anger; passionate.

Definition of Pathetic

1. Adjective. Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion. ¹

2. Adjective. Arousing scornful pity or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Pathetic

1. arousing pity [adj]

Medical Definition of Pathetic

1. 1. Expressing or showing anger; passionate. 2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, especially. Pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story. "Pathetic action." "No theory of the passions can teach a man to be pathetic." (E. Porter) Pathetic muscle, the fourth cranial, or trochlear, nerve, which supplies the superior oblique, or pathetic, muscle of the eye. The pathetic, a style or manner adapted to arouse the tender emotions. Origin: L. Patheticus, Gr, fr, to suffer: cf. F. Pathetique. See Pathos. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Pathetic

path integral formalism path length path of insertion path of least resistance pathbreaker pathbreakers pathbreaking pathed pathema pathematic

pathematic aphasia pather pathergasia pathergy pathers pathetic (current term) pathetic fallacies pathetic fallacy pathetic nerve pathetical

pathetically patheticism patheticisms pathetick patheticness pathetics pathetique pathetisad pathetism pathfinder

Literary usage of Pathetic

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Prose of Edward Rowland Sill: With an Introduction Comprising Some by Edward Rowland Sill (1900)
"... THE MOST pathetic FIGURE IN STORY THE inquiry has sometimes suggested itself to me, What is the most pathetic figure in story ? When I was a boy, ..."

2. Letters on Literature, Taste and Composition: Addressed to His Son by George Gregory (1809)
"The force of pathetic composition arises from that fine sense which the Author of our nature has implanted in us for the wisest and best of purposes, ..."

3. The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson (1905)
"... the stern features relaxing into a smile, the eyes softening with a pathetic tenderness. " Here comes Lou," he would say; " we will change the subject. ..."

4. The Vicar of Wakefield: Der Landprediger Von Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith (1857)
"There is something so pathetic in the description, that I have read it a hundred times with new rapture." — "In my opinion," cried my son, ..."

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