pity
English
Etymology
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 doublet piety.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɪti/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪti
Noun
pity (countable and uncountable, plural pities)
- (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: By Val[entine] Simmes for 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.
- Bible, Proverbs xix. 17
- (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!
- (obsolete) Piety.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)
Translations
feeling of sympathy
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something regrettable
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Verb
pity (third-person singular simple present pities, present participle pitying, simple past and past participle pitied)
- (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.
- Bible, Psalms ciii. 13
- (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.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.11:
Translations
to feel pity for someone or something
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Synonyms
Translations
what a pity — see what a pity
Lower Sorbian
Declension
Declension of pity
Masculine singular | Feminine singular | Neuter singular | Dual | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | pity | pita | pite | pitej | pite |
Genitive | pitego | piteje | pitego | piteju | pitych |
Dative | pitemu | pitej | pitemu | pityma | pitym |
Accusative | pity pitego (animate) |
pitu | pite | pitej piteju (animate) |
pite pitych (optional animate form) |
Instrumental | pitym | piteju | pitym | pityma | pitymi |
Locative | pitem | pitej | pitem | pityma | pitych |
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpʲi.tɨ/
Declension
Noun
pity f
- inflection of pita:
- genitive singular
- nominative plural
- accusative plural
- vocative plural
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