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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Piteous \Pit"e*ous\, adjective [OE. pitous, OF. pitos, F. piteux. See {Pity}.]
1. Pious; devout. [Obs.]
The Lord can deliver piteous men from temptation. --Wyclif.
2. Evincing pity, compassion, or sympathy; compassionate; tender. ''[She] piteous of his case.'' --Pope.
She was so charitable and so pitous. --Chaucer.
3. Fitted to excite pity or sympathy; wretched; miserable; lamentable; sad; as, a piteous case. --Spenser.
The most piteous tale of Lear. --Shak.
4. Paltry; mean; pitiful. ''Piteous amends.'' --Milton.
Syn: Sorrowful; mournful; affecting; doleful; woeful; rueful; sad; wretched; miserable; pitiable; pitiful; compassionate. -- {Pit"e*ous*ly}, adverb -- {Pit"e*ous*ness}, noun
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
piteous
adjective: deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life" [syn: {hapless}, {miserable}, {misfortunate}, {pathetic}, {pitiable}, {pitiful}, {poor}, {wretched}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
53 Moby Thesaurus words for "piteous": affecting, afflictive, beseeching, bitter, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, deplorable, depressing, depressive, discomforting, dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, emotional, entreating, grievous, heartrending, imploring, joyless, lamentable, melancholy, miserable, mournful, moving, painful, pathetic, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, regrettable, rueful, ruined, sad, saddening, sharp, sore, sorrowful, supplicating, tearful, touching, uncomfortable, woebegone, woeful, wretched
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