Pa-thĕt'ic, a.
a. [Gr. παθητικός, from παθεῖν, πάσχειν, to suffer, πάθος, a suffering, violent feeling, passion; Lat. patheticus, Fr. pathétique, Sp. & It. patetico.]
Sense 1. Expressing or showing passion; passionate. [Obs.]
Sense 2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, as pity or grief; as, a pathetic song or discourse; pathetic expostulation.
The effect of his discourses was heightened by a noble figure, and by 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, the nerve which supplies the pathetic muscle. — The pathetic, the style or manner adapted to awaken the passions, especially tender emotions.