pathetic

adj

1. Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.

   “The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.”

   “We have now arrived at one of the most pathetic and glorious events in the history of Israel, one which sanctifies the Lamanite race with the powers of martyrdom, and, by the blood of the victims, washes its garments white from many a former sin.”

   “She held his hand in one of hers, but she too was dozing, and the two made a pretty, or rather a pathetic, picture.”

   “There was no hospital, or any accommodation for the sick men. Each mate nursed his fellow, and some strikingly pathetic touches of devotion were shown here and there amongst them.”

   “[H]e was led away to a private sanitarium for mental disease, while in the newspapers appeared pathetic accounts of his mental breakdown and of the saintliness of his character.”

2. Arousing scorn or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.

   “You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.”

   “You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.”

   “Well you'd better think of something because middle-aged tramps aren't cute, they're pathetic.”

   “Look, I-I hate to sound like Billy Baldwin’s agent, but you can’t just copy everything that ALEC does! It’s pathetic!””

3. (obsolete)Expressing or showing anger; passionate.

   “On a certain Good Friday, in what year we are not told, an especially moving and pathetic sermon was preached in the Cathedral by Father John Texeda, upon the sufferings of our Lord.”

4. Trochlear.