EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English pitye, pitie, pittye, pitee, pite, from Anglo-Norman pité, pittee etc., from Old French pitet, pitié, from Latin pietās. See also the doublets pietà and piety.

PronunciationEdit

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

NounEdit

pity (countable and uncountable, plural pities)

  1. (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
    I can't feel any pity towards the gang, who got injured while attempting to break into a flat.
    take pity on someone
  2. (countable) Something regrettable.
    It's a pity you're feeling unwell because there's a party on tonight.
    What a pity about the band breaking up. I loved them!
    • 1759–1767, [Laurence Sterne], The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume (please specify |volume=I to IX), London: [] T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, []:
      It was a thousand pities.
    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. [], London: [] J[acob] Tonson, [], published 1713, OCLC 79426475, Act I, scene v, page 1:
      What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!
    • 1941 September, O. S. Nock, “The Locomotives of Sir Nigel Gresley: Part V”, in Railway Magazine, page 395:
      It is a thousand pities that no more detailed records than those of the guard's journals are available, but enough is known to establish them firmly among the finest feats ever achieved by "A3" Pacifics.
  3. (obsolete) Piety.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)

SynonymsEdit

TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

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.]
    You have got to pity the guy - he lost his wife, mother and job in the same month.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, [] (King James Version), London: [] Robert Barker, [], OCLC 964384981, Psalms 103:13:
      Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
    • 1902, Hilaire Belloc, The Path to Rome:
      Nor could she get round them on a single point, and I pitied her so much that I bought bread and wine off her to console her, and I let her overcharge me, and went out into the afterglow with her benediction, followed also by the farewells of the middle-class, who were now taking their coffee at little tables outside the house.
  2. (transitive, now regional) To make (someone) feel pity; to provoke the sympathy or compassion of. [from 16th c.]

TranslationsEdit

InterjectionEdit

pity!

  1. Short form of what a pity.

SynonymsEdit

TranslationsEdit

Derived termsEdit

CzechEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

pity

  1. inflection of pít:
    1. inanimate masculine plural passive participle
    2. feminine plural passive participle

Lower SorbianEdit

PronunciationEdit

ParticipleEdit

pity

  1. past passive participle of piś

DeclensionEdit

PolishEdit

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈpi.tɨ/
  • Rhymes: -itɨ
  • Syllabification: pi‧ty

ParticipleEdit

pity

  1. masculine singular passive adjectival participle of pić

DeclensionEdit

NounEdit

pity f

  1. inflection of pita:
    1. genitive singular
    2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural