What's the difference between misfortune and pity?

Misfortune


Definition:

  • (n.) Bad fortune or luck; calamity; an evil accident; disaster; mishap; mischance.
  • (v. i.) To happen unluckily or unfortunately; to miscarry; to fail.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Other than failing to get a goal, I couldn’t ask for anything more.” From Lambert’s perspective there was an element of misfortune about the first and third goals, with Willian benefitting from handy ricochets on both occasions.
  • (2) Penises do no harm, they just sometimes have the misfortune to be attached to people who do.
  • (3) Recent changes at Bicêtre, the historic French institution, exemplify an old paradox in the care of the elderly: improvements which benefit part of a society can mean more misfortunes for others.
  • (4) The bluefin tuna, which has been endangered for several years and has the misfortune to be prized by Japanese sushi lovers, has suffered a catastrophic decline in stocks in the Northern Pacific Ocean, of more than 96%, according to research published on Wednesday.
  • (5) Last July Swatis might have been forgiven for thinking their misfortune was over.
  • (6) And it left him more conscious than he might have been of the random way in which misfortune can knock lives off course.
  • (7) Taking pleasure at the misfortune of rivals is an instinct baked deeply into the character of many journalists.
  • (8) There was an element of misfortune from our point of view about both but it would have been easy to think things weren’t going our way so I’m really pleased with the way we responded.
  • (9) That’s something which I personally added to a situation that I had experienced, because it seemed to me that one could easily die of one’s misfortunes and the things that depress, deflate one.
  • (10) Liz Truss now has the misfortune to inherit the operational disaster that is the direct result of these continued budget reductions and wild swings in government policy.
  • (11) I am satisfied with what I saw, especially after we had this misfortune to concede an own goal in the first couple of minutes.
  • (12) He smiled warmly on his dustjackets, as a very wealthy, very successful author should, but admitted that he was "preoccupied with death, disease and misfortune".
  • (13) She was objecting to people who used society as an excuse for ignoring their own responsibilities, as when they complain that society shouldn't allow a particular misfortune, while doing nothing to make things better.
  • (14) The emergence of such a disturbing trend is just one example of the many ways that the grim economic times are impacting on demand for care services – in this instance, with innocent children apparently being blamed for family misfortunes.
  • (15) It was conjectured that subjects in the positive condition were annoyed by the disabled person's display of "normal" characteristics, whereas in the negative condition they sympathetically accepted the disabled person's inadequacies as befitting a victim of severe misfortune.
  • (16) To lose one cabinet minister, Jacqui Smith, may be regarded as a misfortune.
  • (17) It has even called in Buddhist monks to conduct religious rites to get rid of misfortune, hoping to dispel staff anxieties.
  • (18) Adding insult to injury, we have to deal with what feels like the entire country blaming us for our misfortune.
  • (19) Lesions of the anterior cruciate ligament of the knee are very frequent misfortune and the results of their suture being insufficient yet, made us to explore the possibility to replace the damaged ligament with the fascia lata as an autologous transplant.
  • (20) Knowledge of how these societies try to prevent and cure illness and misfortune would be a preliminary condition for public health programs.

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.