pity

Alternative forms

• pitty (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman pité, pittee etc., from Old French pitet, pitié, from Latin pietās. See also the doublet piety.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪti

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, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, The Essayes, […], printed at 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?)

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.

Interjection

pity!

1. Short form of what a pity.

Derived terms

Participle

pity

1. past passive participle of piś