pitiless

English

Etymology

From Middle English piteeles, pyteles; equivalent to pity +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpɪtɪləs/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)

Adjective

pitiless (comparative more pitiless, superlative most pitiless)

  1. Having, or showing, no pity; merciless, ruthless.
    Synonyms: compassionless, hardhearted, unsympathetic; see also Thesaurus:cruel
    • 1849 March 31, Edgar Allan Poe, “A Dream Within a Dream”, in The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: […], volumes II (Poems and Miscellanies), New York, N.Y.: J. S. Redfield, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 40:
      O God! can I not save / One from the pitiless wave? / Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?
    • 1913 June–December, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Fifty Frightful Men”, in The Return of Tarzan, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published March 1915, →OCLC, page 319:
      Her clothes were torn to mere shreds and tatters, and through the pitiful rags her once white and tender skin showed raw and bleeding from contact with the thousand pitiless thorns and brambles through which she had been dragged.
  2. Having no kind feelings; unkind.

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