Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Pity

Pit′y

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Pities
(#)
.
[OE.
pite
, OF.
pité
,
pitié
, F.
pitié
, L.
pietas
piety, kindness, pity. See
Pious
, and cf.
Piety
.]
1.
Piety.
[Obs.]
Wyclif.
2.
A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.
He that hath
pity
upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
Prov. xix. 17.
He . . . has no more
pity
in him than a dog.
Shakespeare
3.
A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted.
“The more the pity.”
Shak.
What
pity
is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!
Addison.
☞ In this sense, sometimes used in the plural, especially in the colloquialism: “It is a thousand pities.”
Syn. – Compassion; mercy; commiseration; condolence; sympathy, fellow-suffering; fellow-feeling. –
Pity
,
Sympathy
,
Compassion
. Sympathy is literally fellow-feeling, and therefore requiers a certain degree of equality in situation, circumstances, etc., to its fullest exercise. Compassion is deep tenderness for another under severe or inevitable misfortune. Pity regards its object not only as suffering, but weak, and hence as inferior.

Pit′y

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Pitied
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Pitying
.]
1.
To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering.
Like as a father
pitieth
his children, so the Lord
pitieth
them that fear him.
Ps. ciii. 13.
2.
To move to pity; – used impersonally.
[Obs.]
It
pitieth
them to see her in the dust.
Bk. of Com. Prayer.

Pit′y

,
Verb.
I.
To be compassionate; to show pity.
I will not
pity
, nor spare, nor have mercy.
Jer. xiii. 14.

Webster 1828 Edition

Pity

PITY

,
Noun.
[The Latin,Italian, Spanish and Portuguese languages unite pity and piety in the same word, and the word may be from the root of compassion; L. patior, to suffer.]
1.
The feeling or suffering of one person, excited by the distresses of another; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion or fellow-suffering.
He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord. Prov.19.
In Scripture however, the word pity usually includes
compassion accompanied with some act of charity or benevolence, and not simply a fellow feeling of distress.
Pity is always painful, yet always agreeable.
2.
The ground or subject of pity; cause of grief; thing to be regretted.
What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!
That he is old, the more is the pity, his white hairs do witness it.
In this sense, the word has a plural. It is a thousand pities he should waste his estate in prodigality.

Definition 2024

pity

pity

English

Alternative forms

Noun

pity ‎(countable and uncountable, plural pities)

  1. (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
    • Bible, Proverbs xix. 17
      He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
    • Shakespeare
      He […] has no more pity in him than a dog.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, 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 Sterne
      It was a thousand pities.
    • Addison
      What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!
  3. (obsolete) Piety.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)

Synonyms

  • (mercy): ruth
  • (something regrettable): shame

Translations

Verb

pity ‎(third-person singular simple present pities, present participle pitying, simple past and past participle pitied)

  1. (transitive) To feel pity for (someone or something). [from 15th c.]
    • Bible, Psalms ciii. 13
      Like 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 Prayer
      It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

Translations

Interjection

pity!

  1. Short form of what a pity.

Synonyms

Translations

Derived terms

Lower Sorbian

Participle

pity

  1. past passive participle of piś

Declension

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɪti/
  • Rhymes: -ɪti

Similar Results