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.