PATHETICALLY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does pathetically mean? 

• PATHETICALLY (adverb)
  The adverb PATHETICALLY has 2 senses:

1. in a manner arousing sympathy and compassion

2. arousing scornful pity

  Familiarity information: PATHETICALLY used as an adverb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PATHETICALLY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

In a manner arousing sympathy and compassion

Synonyms:

pathetically; pitiably

Context example:

the sick child cried pathetically

Pertainym:

pathetic (deserving or inciting pity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Arousing scornful pity

Context example:

it was pathetically bad

Pertainym:

pathetic (inspiring mixed contempt and pity)

 Context examples 

"I wish you could translate it into English for me," I said, pathetically, to my help-mate.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He got Mr. Peggotty to sing, or rather to roar, When the stormy winds do blow, do blow, do blow; and he sang a sailor's song himself, so pathetically and beautifully, that I could have almost fancied that the real wind creeping sorrowfully round the house, and murmuring low through our unbroken silence, was there to listen.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As soon as he got home, Utterson sat down and wrote to Jekyll, complaining of his exclusion from the house, and asking the cause of this unhappy break with Lanyon; and the next day brought him a long answer, often very pathetically worded, and sometimes darkly mysterious in drift.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Feeling very much out of sorts herself, Jo hurried into the parlor to find Beth sobbing over Pip, the canary, who lay dead in the cage with his little claws pathetically extended, as if imploring the food for want of which he had died.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)