Pathetic (definition)
Pa*thet"ic (?), a. [L. patheticus, Gr. , fr. , , to suffer: cf. F. path'etique. See Pathos.] 1. Expressing or showing anger; passionate. [Obs.]2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story. "Pathetic action."Macaulay. No theory of the passions can teach a man to be pathetic. E. Porter. Pathetic muscle Anat., the superior oblique muscle of the eye. -- Pathetic nerve Anat., the fourth cranial, or trochlear, nerve, which supplies the superior oblique, or pathetic, muscle of the eye. -- The pathetic, a style or manner adapted to arouse the tender emotions.
© Webster 1913.
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