All 10 Uses
pathetic
in
The Sea of Tranquility
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- Fortunately, since I was walking pathetically slowly to make the most of my stalking experience, I don't end up face-first on the ground.
p. 38.5pathetically = in a manner that is so bad it is laughable or contemptible -- possibly mixed with pity
- It's a pathetic, short glass tumbler. Is he some sort of conservationist? I'm going to need about eighteen of those right now.
p. 65.1 *pathetic = so bad it is laughable or contemptible
- "I was invited," she says, not wanting to look pathetic, like she just showed up at Drew's house hoping to see him because his parents were out of town...
p. 254.7pathetic = pitiful (arousing pity)
- I'm not that pathetic that I need empty compliments.
p. 278.1 *
- "How do you not mean to do what you did? You hit me in the face over and over again. You dragged me around by my hair and ripped it out of my head. You... Do you remember it?" The last question is nothing more than a pathetic, strangled whisper.
p. 385.9
- I'm glad I don't gasp or anything equally pathetic because if I did, I'd probably have to cut off my balls and hand them to her.†
p. 116.8
- Whining was pathetic, but hate got things done.†
p. 129.2
- We've fallen into an oddly domestic pattern and it's kind of pathetic when you stop to think about why.†
p. 193.4
- She broke up with me and said I was everything she ever knew I was and that people were right, that she was pathetic for believing anything else.†
p. 306.5
- It's too pathetic to think about leaving him a message.†
p. 350.9
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)
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(3)
(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.