From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpitifulpit‧i‧ful /ˈpɪtɪfəl/ adjective 1 SAD/UNHAPPYsomeone who is pitiful looks or sounds so sad and unfortunate that you feel very sorry for them → pity The refugees were a pitiful sight.2 GOOD ENOUGHa pitiful amount is very small The fee was pitiful – only about £60.3 very bad in quality SYN awful His performance was pitiful – five goals flew past him. —pitifully adverb The dog was pitifully thin.
Examples from the Corpus
pitiful• Stu's bass playing is just pitiful.• Serious inroads had now been made into my pitiful cash reserves and tomorrow I would be penniless.• The horses were in a pitiful condition, thin and covered with sores.• I refer, or course, to the pitiful coverage of the Five Nations Championship provided by the corporation.• the pitiful cries of an injured puppy• John looked pitiful, his whole body weak with exhaustion.• Margret looked so pitiful, I had to help her.• How fragile I was, and how pitiful my fears seem now.• My Songhai was pitiful, my Mandarin worse.• The velocity, the sheer power and the technology of the rocket perhaps makes all the more pitiful our meagre destiny.• She would not think of the pitiful remains in the corner.• But what pitiful towns they were.• Did unemployment, economic depression and the General Strike reduce trade unionism to a pitiful weakness?pitiful sight• She was a pitiful sight, still lying where she had fallen, too terrified to move an inch. 