All 9 Uses of
pathetic
in
The Help
- 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.
Chpt 13 *pathetic = pitiful
- calling the governor 'a pathetic man with the morals of a streetwalker.'
Chpt 19 *pathetic = so bad he is laughable
- Now that all his good ole boy, tough bourbon talk has evaporated, I wonder if he's this pathetic all the time.†
Chpt 13
- "Pathetic," the Senator says, now turning to my father.†
Chpt 20
- " He crumples in on himself, this gigantic bull of a man, and I want to escape and reassure him at the same time, he looks so pathetic, but then he looks up at me with his bloodshot eyes, says, "Seems like ten minutes ago I was showing him how to load his first rifle, wring his first dove-bird.†
Chpt 20
- And then he starts to walk away, a pathetic wobbly thing.†
Chpt 24
- It's pathetic, but I'm glad to still have the newsletter.†
Chpt 27
- Pathetic...Missus Stein called it.†
Chpt 28
- But they don't know what a pathetic mess I turn into when Leroy's beating on me.†
Chpt 32
Definitions:
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(1)
(pathetic as in: Her pathetic look saddened us.) pitiful (arousing pity)
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(2)
(pathetic as in: a pathetic attempt to insult me) very bad -- possibly so bad it is laughable (possibly mixed with some feeling of pity)
-
(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
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.