more's the pity
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
it's unfortunate or regrettable
Literally: more is the pity
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
‘ So are heaps of other traps, but they're used, more's the pity, on poor animals that are doing no wrong.
They don't make films like his anymore — more's the pity.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “more's the pity” mean?
it's unfortunate or regrettable Literally: more is the pity
Is “more's the pity” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.