- hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, wretched - deserving or inciting pity; "a hapless victim"; "miserable victims of war"; "the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic"- Galsworthy; "piteous appeals for help"; "pitiable homeless children"; "a pitiful fate"; "Oh, you poor thing"; "his poor distorted limbs"; "a wretched life"
Antonym: fortunate (indirect, via unfortunate)