Pa*thet"ic (?), a. [L.
patheticus, Gr. ?, fr. ?, ?, to suffer: cf. F.
pathétique. 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.