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Poor vs Pity - What's the difference?

poor | pity |

As nouns the difference between poor and pity

is that poor is with "the" Those who have little or no possessions or money, taken as a group while pity is a feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.

As an adjective poor

is with little or no possessions or money.

As a verb pity is

to feel pity for (someone or something).

As an interjection pity is

short form of what a pity.

poor

English

Adjective

(er)
  • With little or no possessions or money.
  • :
  • Of low quality.
  • :
  • *, chapter=10
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.}}
  • To be pitied.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=15 citation , passage=Mr. Campion sighed. β€˜Poor man,’ he said. β€˜He sees his great sacrifices rejected by the gods, and so, no doubt, all the Misses Eumenides let loose again to plague him.’}}
  • Deficient in a specified way.
  • :
  • Inadequate, insufficient.
  • :
  • *(w) (1600-1666)
  • *:That I have wronged no man will be a poor plea or apology at the last day.
  • Free from self-assertion; not proud or arrogant; meek.
  • *(Bible), (w) v.3
  • *:Blessed are the poor in spirit.
  • Synonyms

    * (little or no possessions) impoverished, wealthless, * (of low quality) inferior * (to be pitied) pitiable, * See also * See also

    Antonyms

    * (having little or no possessions) rich * (of low quality) good * (deficient in a specified way) rich * (inadequate) adequate

    Derived terms

    * poor man's * dirt poor * house poor * land poor * piss-poor * poor as a church mouse * poor box * poorhouse * poor power * poor relation

    Noun

    (en-plural noun)
  • (with "the") Those who have little or no possessions or money, taken as a group.
  • The poor are always with us.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    pity

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pitty (obsolete)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xix. 17
  • He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Hehas no more pity in him than a dog.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, p.5:
  • The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offendedis, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty .
  • (countable) Something regrettable.
  • It's a pity you're feeling unwell because there's a party on tonight.
  • * Laurence Sterne
  • It was a thousand pities .
  • * Addison
  • What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!
  • (obsolete) piety
  • (Wyclif)

    Synonyms

    * (mercy) ruth * (something regrettable) shame

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To feel pity for (someone or something).
  • * Bible, Psalms ciii. 13
  • Like as a father pitieth' his children, so the Lord ' pitieth them that fear him.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.11:
  • She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee; / That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.
  • * Book of Common Prayer
  • It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

    Interjection

  • Short form of what a pity.
  • Synonyms

    * shame, what a pity, what a shame

    Derived terms

    * piteous * pitiable * pitiful * self-pity * what a pity ----