What's the difference between dismal and pathetic?

Dismal


Definition:

  • (a.) Fatal; ill-omened; unlucky.
  • (a.) Gloomy to the eye or ear; sorrowful and depressing to the feelings; foreboding; cheerless; dull; dreary; as, a dismal outlook; dismal stories; a dismal place.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Arsenal’s 10 men fall at the first hurdle against Dinamo Zagreb Read more This win, even against such feeble opponents, was celebrated, with the locals chorusing their manager’s name amid a wave of relief given so much of the team’s domestic campaign to date has been dismal.
  • (2) Massive pay packets are being used to lure foreign coaches and players from footballing nations such as Brazil in order to beautify the still dismal Chinese game.
  • (3) Trump and Hillary Clinton’s dismal honesty ratings, he says, show scrutiny is working.
  • (4) Chris Williamson, of data provider Markit, said: "A batch of dismal data and a gloomier assessment of the economic outlook has cast a further dark cloud over the UK's economic health, piling pressure on the government to review its fiscal policy and growth strategy.
  • (5) Referencing these dismal truths on the website Race Files , Soya Jung criticised Chua and Rubenfeld for "buying into exceptionalist arguments to explain disparities means endorsing a dehumanising system of racialised norms".
  • (6) We will have another financial shock – it’s inevitable.” Gary Greenwood, analyst at Shore Capital, described the results as “dismal” and noted the bank was ditching targets previously set to measure returns to shareholders.
  • (7) Henderson completed 77 minutes during a dismal goalless draw, secured on a semi-frozen pitch, to hand Klopp some welcome injury news following the England midfielder’s extended absence because of a heel problem.
  • (8) It might be doing even better if it had not been deliberately mischaracterised as a demand for a ban by typically dismal feminists, rather than an effort to persuade the Sun that a woman's bra size is not the most interesting fact about her.
  • (9) But it's a dismal prospect, for this is how our politics of hope continues to manifest itself – vote for us; we're the least worst.
  • (10) Some of these measures appeared to be lifted over the weekend, but as thousands trudged or bussed their way towards Austria and then Germany, the dismal scenes in Hungary will stain one administration’s human rights record – and perhaps the reputation of a nation.
  • (11) Griffiths replaced Nadir Ciftci for the start of the second half after a dismal first 45 minutes from the home side and Ronny Deila’s men continued to struggle, with Bitton sent off in the 67th minute after picking up his second yellow card.
  • (12) The UK's weather seems set on squandering one of its last chances to make amends for the largely dismal summer by threatening wind and rain for the event-packed bank holiday weekend.
  • (13) Following United's dismal 2-0 Champions League defeat at Oympiakos on Tuesday, Van Persie signalled his disquiet by complaining that his team-mates were taking up positions he wanted to occupy.
  • (14) Except for the palliative effect of irradiation, most treatment protocols have not altered the dismal median survival of approximately 11 months seen in untreated patients with malignant mesothelioma.
  • (15) They fought back and, in a rare uplifting moment in these dismal times, won.
  • (16) Primary pulmonary hypertension is a relatively rare disease with a poorly understood pathophysiology, limited therapeutic options, and a dismal prognosis.
  • (17) The pernicious nature of this tumor often leads to a dismal outcome despite aggressive therapy.
  • (18) Nonoperative treatment deserves re-evaluation in patients with all three risk factors because of their uniformly dismal outcome after operation.
  • (19) The third goal represented another dismal concession from Leicester’s point of view.
  • (20) The introduction of planned multidisciplinary treatment has improved the outlook for patients with this once dismal disease.

Pathetic


Definition:

  • (a.) Expressing or showing anger; passionate.
  • (a.) Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But Blair's address - "history will forgive us" - was a dubious exercise in group therapy: the cheers smacked of pathetic gratitude, as he piously pardoned the legislators, as well as himself, for the catastrophe of Iraq.
  • (2) This is the most pathetic thing I’ve seen in my whole time in the United States Senate … I think they ought to stop posturing and acting like idiots.” Sean Spicer , the White House press secretary, branded the Democrats’ actions “embarrassing”.
  • (3) Hugo Williams, his assistant at LM for many years, once wrote of him turning contributions round at the door - for which their authors, said Williams, were pathetically grateful.
  • (4) This together with the pathetic lack of careers advice leaves too many girls and young women with no incentives to raise their sights or their ambitions.
  • (5) LOWLIGHT Marcus Christenson The racism in itself in first place and then the pathetic fines that came with it.
  • (6) He described the Croatian prime minister’s handling of the refugees as “pathetic.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Hungarian police monitor a large group of migrants and refugees at a border crossing between Hungary and Croatia at Beremend.
  • (7) "My life speaks for me so there is no need to speak any more about this situation because it is ridiculous and pathetic."
  • (8) The alleged rewards were pathetically modest: gift certificates to Bed Bath & Beyond or Target were considered enough, apparently, to permanently kick people out of their homes.
  • (9) Announcing his party's plans today, Simon Hughes, the Lib Dems' climate change and energy spokesman, said: "One per cent of our current stock being energy-efficient is pathetic.
  • (10) "Everyone could see through what they were trying to do: 'Don't look at this vast hole in the public finances over there, look at this pathetic piece of class war posturing with 50p over here.'
  • (11) If they are those that have been running policy and advising policymakers then their record on youth unemployment so far has been quite pathetic.
  • (12) Australia is the richest, largest country in the region, so to sit back and say we are doing enough is pathetic really,” said Ritter, who attended the Kiribati summit.
  • (13) The most pathetic claim has been that Hammond did not warn his cabinet colleagues that the increase represented a breach of the Conservative manifesto.
  • (14) The pathetic point-scoring spat between health secretary Jeremy Hunt and his opposite number, Andy Burnham, over a past hospital scandal is dominating the headlines.
  • (15) Opening the assault on Brown, the SNP MP Mike Weir said: "We are witnessing the pathetic sight of a cabinet reshuffling itself.
  • (16) "Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic," wrote the American film critic Roger Ebert.
  • (17) The fact that a mother-figure, the less-than-interesting Lady Russell, had "persuaded" Anne eight years earlier to give up the young man with whom she had fallen in love, due to his lack of prospects, was merely pathetic.
  • (18) Australia could meet tougher greenhouse gas emission targets without extra economic pain, according to the modelling used by the Abbott government to decide on post-2020 emission reduction targets that have been labelled “pathetically inadequate” .
  • (19) It displays a lamentable absence of quantitative detail, and a pathetic reliance on fashionable but questionable forecasting techniques that have long been compellingly contradicted by hard data."
  • (20) Instead he was outthought and outfought and, having lost his WBA title to Wladimir Klitschko, reduced rather pathetically to blaming the defeat on a broken toe.