Sample sentences for PATHETIC - verbalworkout.com

2 meanings

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1 —as in:
Her pathetic look saddened us.

Definition

pitiful (arousing pity)

She was pathetic as she tried to salvage her dignity.

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

Other Uses (with this meaning)

The shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic.

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

I don't let myself say to him what I'd like to, that he probably deserved whatever she did, but he's just too pathetic-looking.
Kathryn Stockett -- The Help

pathetic = pitiful

That pathetic woman. The fact that harder times were coming was surely the best reason for keeping Rosa employed, but no, they fired her.
Markus Zusak -- The Book Thief

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

He walked very slowly, and he had lost so much weight. It was pathetic, that's what it was.
Paul Zindel -- The Pigman

pathetic = pitiful (something that arouses pity)

I think you're a pathetic alcoholic who says fancy things to get attention like a really precocious eleven-year-old and I feel super bad for you.
John Green -- The Fault in Our Stars

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

"They were a pathetic looking bunch: mostly skin and bones, clad in rags with makeshift footwear, and nervous," he wrote.
Laura Hillenbrand -- Unbroken

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

How pathetic that I felt safer in someone else's house than in my own, right?
R.J. Palacio -- Wonder

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

There was something pathetic in it that touched me.
Bram Stoker -- Dracula

pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)

The owl flopped about pathetically, its talons scratching the door, bashing its head in a panic.
Tara Westover -- Educated

pathetically = in a manner that arouses pity

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

2 —as in:
a pathetic attempt to insult me

Definition

very bad — possibly so bad it is laughable (possibly mixed with some feeling of pity)

It was a pathetic attempt to insult me.

pathetic = so bad it was laughable

Other Uses (with this meaning)

She made some pathetic excuse about having a prior commitment.

pathetic = very bad

It was a pathetic attempt to claim credit for my work.

pathetic = very bad

The comment was out-of-character and seemed a pathetic attempt at trying to worldly.

pathetic = very bad

You're pathetic if you think this thing between us was real.
Simone Elkeles -- Perfect Chemistry

pathetic = so bad that it is laughable

A very pathetic, ill-prepared army, Thomas thought, but an army all the same.
James Dashner -- The Maze Runner

pathetic = so bad it is laughable or contemptible

Maybe she had another weapon in her small pathetic arsenal.
Robert Cormier -- After the First Death

pathetic = very bad — possibly so bad it is laughable (possibly mixed with some feeling of pity)

They've got such pathetic little lives.
David Almond -- Clay

pathetic = so bad it is laughable or contemptible (possibly also causing pity)

Redd thought this funny, in a pathetic sort of way, since neither the Lady of Clubs nor any of the other cabinet members knew where the Heart Crystal was.
Frank Beddor -- The Looking Glass Wars

pathetic = so bad he is laughable

...after a while started crafting an email to Peter Van Houten about... But I didn't send it. It was too pathetic even for me.
John Green -- The Fault in Our Stars

pathetic = embarrassingly bad

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Less commonly:

Much more rarely, and typically just in classic literature, pathetic can mean "relating to emotions". One fairly modern example is in the book, A Separate Peace, where the expression pathetic fallacy is used to describe the non-rational human tendency to ascribe human emotions to inanimate objects or animals.

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