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Desperate vs Piteous - What's the difference?

desperate | piteous |

As adjectives the difference between desperate and piteous

is that desperate is being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless while piteous is pitiful; evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy.

desperate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.
  • * , chapter=16
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”}}
  • Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
  • * Macaulay
    • desperate expedients
  • Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.
  • Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • a desperate offendress against nature
  • * Macaulay
    • the most desperate of reprobates
  • Extremely intense.

    • Derived terms

    * desperation

    Related terms

    * despair * desperado

    Anagrams

    * ----

    piteous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • pitiful; evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The most piteous tale of Lear.
  • (obsolete) pious; devout
  • * Wyclif
    • The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation.
  • (obsolete) compassionate; tender
  • * Alexander Pope
    • [She was] piteous of his case.
  • (obsolete) paltry; mean; pitiful
    • (Milton)

    Synonyms

    * pathetic

    Derived terms

    * piteously

    Related terms

    * see (pity)