For most of these children their attendance at school would be limited to a pitifully short period of their young lives.

Intellectually he had accepted the reality of their pitifully short lifespans.

Even with her pitifully short allotment of years, she felt it was better to serve the time than to stay on the run.

Enjoy the rest of your lives, as pitifully short as they will be!

Their leader sent a relay of four men after me, but their endurance was pitifully short.

The runway that they had prepared was pitifully short, even for a Dragon.

The mission briefing had been pitifully short on details, and the whole idea seemed a little less than sane to Joe.

It had no legs, but the word snake fell pitifully short.

Earth had fusion bombs and rockets which could carry them for pitifully short distances on the cosmic scale.

(Humans lead such pitifully short lives, they are forced to grow up rapidly.)