(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.
Rueful
Definition:
(a.) Causing one to rue or lament; woeful; mournful; sorrowful.
(a.) Expressing sorrow.
Example Sentences:
(1) There was always a rueful melancholy, stiffened by irony and leavened by humour about him.
(2) All subcultures have their references, which for insiders carry a complex set of feelings: the comfort of belonging and shutting out outsiders, mixed with a rueful, ironic self-awareness.
(3) She was characterised by her very specific sense of failure, which was rueful but nonchalant at the same time: Pearson's iconic image had Kate Reddy smashing up shop-bought mince pies to make them look as though she'd made them herself.
(4) Seven Oscar failures was a rueful glory he shared for a while with his old pal, Richard Burton.
(5) Yet as news filtered through from White Hart Lane that Gareth Bale had finally scored for Tottenham, Wenger - who offered Jack Wilshere a late cameo -looked rueful when Walcott's shot rebounded benignly off a post and relieved as Olivier Giroud made a surprisingly effective tackle to deny Ben Arfa.
(6) "You never say never to a warrior like him," said a rueful colleague, but against a lacklustre mayor and unpopular government, a heavy hitter with less baggage might have done better.
(7) Garde looked rueful but resigned, though the FA Cup is not the biggest battle last year’s runners-up face this season, and everyone seemed to know it.
(8) To be honest I feel rather self-conscious about my size,” Tshabalala told me with a rueful smile.
(9) It's a rueful acknowledgement of human frailty and opposition talent - eg.
(10) It is his film in disguise, the one that got away; a rueful critique of an oppressive regime and a heartfelt salute to the creative impulse that will not be quashed.
(11) Grimes took the stage for her concession speech with a rueful look and as much emotion as she showed on the campaign trail, thanking her family, the other Democratic politicians who stumped for her, her staff and her supporters.
(12) In the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice , his joke about his wife not accompanying his daughters to meet Mr Bingley lest he "like you the best of the party" has a hint of ruefulness.
(13) Written by Tim Firth and directed by Daniel Evans, it’s a rueful, magical look at the pleasures and perils of family life.
(14) You have to get out there and earn it and that’s what I’m trying to do.” On a rueful note, she added: “If I had to do it again, I would have used a separate email account.
(15) And here is the twist: in the last of the conventionally numbered chapters we find out that our hero (brave, rueful, suffering) is not the man we thought he was.
(16) He gave a rueful smile and replied: “I think enjoy is the wrong word.
(17) "Nobody knew about The Artist until it appeared in Cannes," he recalls, with a reflex ruefulness.
(18) At another point there is the rueful admission: “But perhaps I am now too dangerous to associate with!” Mostly it is more tiresome than dangerous.
(19) Some people who know the work will go, ‘hang on’, but generally speaking it’s the same people doing fairly much the same stuff.” The rueful smile again.
(20) Each team retained its pride and the visitors can be content with a stalemate on hostile terrain but Sir Alex Ferguson may be rueful that Chelsea have eased four points clear of them.