pitiful

adj

1. So appalling or sad that one feels or should feel sorry for it; eliciting pity.

   “Scotland has a pitiful climate.”

2. Eliciting contempt.
3. Of an amount or number: very small.

   “A pitiful number of students bothered to turn up.”

4. (archaic)Feeling pity; merciful.

   “Some ſay that Rauens foſter forlorne children, / The vvhilſt their ovvne birds famiſh in their neſts: / Oh be to me though thy hard hart ſay no, / Nothing ſo kinde but ſomething pittifull.”

   “Straightway, he now goes on to make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful.”

adv

1. (colloquial, dialectal)In a pitiful manner; pitifully; piteously; pathetically.

   “‘She followed ’em, cryin’ pitiful, to the old boat on the Wall[.]’”