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Glite Dictionary
pitiful performance

pitiful performance

1 3.7
A very bad show that makes people feel disappointed
  • noun
  • /ˈpɪtɪfəl pərˈfɔːrməns/
translation icon : actuación patética
  • If at age thirty-two you stop and see that your life so far has been a pitiful performance, what is there to do?

Examples

  • After the team's pitiful performance last night, fans were left feeling disappointed.

  • The audience groaned at the actor's pitiful performance during the play.

  • She couldn't believe how pitiful the performance was; the musician missed every note.

Synonyms

underperformance
vspitiful performance
3 4.6

A person, team, or company not doing as well as expected

is a far more extreme level, very poor and deeply disappointing
underachievement
vspitiful performance
1 5.4

Doing less well than expected for a person's ability

is extreme poor quality itself, not just a gap from potential

Antonyms

excellent
∞ 1.0

Very good and better than most similar things

stellar
60 5.8

Much better than others in quality or performance

How Disappointing

pitiful performance
1 3.7
Spursy performance
  • Slang
9.9

Surface Forms

pitiful performance singular
pitiful performances plural

Morphology

pitiful + performance

The meaning is directly compositional: 'pitiful' (very poor, deserving scorn) simply modifies 'performance' (the quality of execution), yielding 'a very poor performance.' This adjective+noun combination follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern that a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer.

Etymology

The phrase pitiful performance comes from the word pitiful, meaning something that makes people feel pity or sorry, and performance, meaning a show or action; imagine a show so weak that the audience feels sorry for the actors. So, pitiful performance means 'very poor' or 'disappointing'.