What's the difference between compassionate and pity?

Compassionate


Definition:

  • (a.) Having a temper or disposition to pity; sympathetic; merciful.
  • (a.) Complaining; inviting pity; pitiable.
  • (v. t.) To have compassion for; to pity; to commiserate; to sympathize with.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He added that the appearance this week on Libyan television of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi showed it had been a mistake by the Scottish justice minister to release him on compassionate grounds in 2009.
  • (2) The Frenchman has been excused from duty at Everton on Saturday on compassionate grounds and the club have put no time frame on his possible return.
  • (3) This was greeted by a furious wall of sound from Labour, which only grew when he added: "The last government failed to prioritise compassionate care … they tried to shut down the whistleblowers …" It was pure party-political point-scoring, matched in spades by Labour's Andy Burnham.
  • (4) Matthew d’Ancona : She’s a risk-taker, and a potentially transformative leader Theresa May may be a compassionate Conservative, but her arrival in Downing Street has been anything but a velvet revolution.
  • (5) These people have travelled for hundreds of miles to reach us, I wanted to show what British justice meant, to show him the character of this country is actually compassionate.” The man had £35 on a top-up card to use in specified shops, and was not allowed to take any form of work.
  • (6) Megrahi, who is dying of prostate cancer, was freed by Scotland on compassionate grounds after serving eight years of a life sentence over the attack.
  • (7) We all have our own unique DNA and our own life experiences.” But rather than run from the family name entirely, the former Florida governor is appealing instead to his party’s sense of noblesse oblige – crafting a new version of his brother’s somewhat faded brand of compassionate conservatism.
  • (8) He fulfilled a difficult role in a progressive and compassionate way … he has done his utmost to transform the CPS's record on rape and domestic violence, delivering improved conviction rates for both.
  • (9) They had announced Thursday that "as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."
  • (10) The pledge to meet the international aid target is one of the few remaining vestiges of the pre-government, compassionate Conservative Cameron.
  • (11) When I look at photographs that try to move the world to compassionate action I am haunted by Jurgen Stroop .
  • (12) Evidence from America, and from the 15 NHS hospitals that have so far introduced them, shows that Schwartz Centre Rounds "help hospital and care staff support each other and learn about how to deal better with tough situations, and spend more time focussed on caring for patients in a compassionate way", he added.
  • (13) He said: “Among the horror of the refugee crisis, one of the most harrowing images has been the thousands of orphaned children fleeing conflict.” “Britain has always been a compassionate and welcoming country, and I am delighted that the government has finally, after months of pressure, committed to vital humanitarian aid.
  • (14) He said that it had made its decision on compassionate grounds, and that any suggestion that lobbying had taken place was a "matter for BP to answer".
  • (15) She looks at me compassionately, as if I have sunstroke.
  • (16) We are already the most compassionate and generous country in the world and it is not even close.” “No other country provides anywhere near the amount of assistance for hurting people around the world as we do.
  • (17) In the foreword, iconic black activist Angela Davis describes Shakur as a "compassionate human being with an unswerving commitment to justice".
  • (18) Investment in young children is discussed as a prudent as well as a compassionate policy, one which will reduce future health care costs and enhance our position in the international economy.
  • (19) The verdict in the Kay Gilderdale case is further evidence that the law on mercy killing is out of date, experts say, and unable to deal properly with public views on compassionate death and assisted suicide.
  • (20) When it was her turn in front of Mengele [the murderous Auschwitz doctor who notoriously experimented on inmates], my mother told him that she was pregnant, hoping he would be compassionate ... Mengele snapped “ Du dumme gans ” [you stupid goose] and ordered her to the right.” That meant she had been chosen for forced labour, rather than the gas chamber.

Pity


Definition:

  • (n.) Piety.
  • (n.) A feeling for the sufferings or distresses of another or others; sympathy with the grief or misery of another; compassion; fellow-feeling; commiseration.
  • (n.) A reason or cause of pity, grief, or regret; a thing to be regretted.
  • (v. t.) To feel pity or compassion for; to have sympathy with; to compassionate; to commiserate; to have tender feelings toward (any one), awakened by a knowledge of suffering.
  • (v. t.) To move to pity; -- used impersonally.
  • (v. i.) To be compassionate; to show pity.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The voters don’t do gratitude, self-pitying politicians are wont to moan.
  • (2) With grievous amazement, never self-pitying but sometimes bordering on a sort of numbed wonderment, Levi records the day-to-day personal and social history of the camp, noting not only the fine gradations of his own descent, but the capacity of some prisoners to cut a deal and strike a bargain, while others, destined by their age or character for the gas ovens, follow "the slope down to the bottom, like streams that run down to the sea".
  • (3) "); hopeless self-pity ("Nobody said anything to me about Billy ... all day long") and rage ("You want to put a bench in the park in Billy's name?
  • (4) Indeed, mainstream economics is a pitifully thin distillation of historical wisdom on the topics that it addresses.
  • (5) Would you really feel any pity if one of those dots stopped moving forever?” It is there to remind him that the dots are worth fighting for.
  • (6) Last year, Amnesty International described the world’s response as “pitiful” and earlier this week, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants called on the EU to deliver a proper resettlement programme.
  • (7) April's family had to endure the "spectacle of your hypocritical sympathy for their loss and of your tears", the judge told Bridger, saying any tears were motivated purely by self-pity.
  • (8) And this is the mainspring of so many of his stories, novellas, and his one novel, Beware of Pity : the clash between propriety and desire.
  • (9) It’s actually a pity that there’s now a break because I wanted to continue playing games,” said the Italian.
  • (10) In his final fight, against the journeyman boxer Kevin McBride, he was a pitiful figure - slumped in a corner, legs splayed, unable or unwilling to stand himself up.
  • (11) Other negative emotions – self-pity, guilt, apathy, pessimism, narcissism – make it a deeply unattractive illness to be around, one that requires unusual levels of understanding and tolerance from family and friends.
  • (12) He said it was a “pity” that the UK prime minister “wasn’t able to express the British position at the press conference with Donald Trump standing next to her”.
  • (13) As the turbulent commercial radio sector enters another new phase, Park wants to sweep away the thinking that has left too many of his colleagues wallowing in self-pity, and turn his fire on a familiar target.
  • (14) Broadly defined, this sort of behaviour involves procrastination, stubbornness, resentment, sullenness, obstructionism, self-pity and a tendency to create chaotic situations.
  • (15) It is a pity we did not take our chances,” the Ukraine coach, Mykhailo Fomenko, said.
  • (16) "This depressing morning has now got me questioning my pitiful existence," sobs James Dodge.
  • (17) Foreign dignitaries were invited to attend for the first time and it is a pity that from Europe only Javier Solana chose to take the offer up.
  • (18) Men convicted of rape are often pitied in the media and, like Evans, quickly vault back to positions of fame .
  • (19) But after the strange denials that this old, sick man is dying I want to talk not with pity but of his power.
  • (20) Staff here dread the welfare reform bill, waiting for debts, arrears, evictions and pitiful hardship to wash up on their doorstep.