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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