pathetically

comparative more pathetically · superlative most pathetically

1. In a pathetic manner; piteously.

   Well, before you have to ask and get all blushy again, I'll take you home, since you're so pathetically without wheels.

   2007 April 8, Bill Cameron, chapter 8, in Lost Dog (Skin Kadash; 1), Woodbury, Minn.: Midnight Ink, →ISBN, page 102

   3 more examples

   Young, pretty, an orphan — and under such circumstances, she told her weeping tale so pathetically, so mildly, and so unhatingly towards the prisoners at the bar, that all admired, praised, loved her.

   1838, Littell's Spirit of the Magazines and Annuals, page 486

   The sails were split, the mainyard shivered, the wind blowing fresh, the night setting in; and all our chance was to make for Corfu--or, as F. pathetically called it, 'a watery grave.'

   1880, John Nichol, Byron

   Parker bared the arm, polished a little spot with a wisp of cotton saturated with alcohol, grasped the pathetically flabby skin with experienced fingers; and, tipping up the syringe, pushed the piston gently to expel the air.

   1935, Lloyd C. Douglas, chapter 8, in Green Light, London: Peter Davies, page 137