sorry sight

a sorry sight

Someone or something that has a piteous, woeful, or wretched appearance. Our son was a sorry sight after his six-month-long trip around Southeast Asia on his own, looking skinny, dirty, and threadbare. But he said he had the best time of his life. We were greeted by quite a sorry sight when we entered the home. Trash and random junk was piled all over every room of the house, while scrawny, dirty cats prowled around, picking at various scraps of food.
See also: sight, sorry
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sorry sight

 and sad sight
a sight that one regrets seeing; someone or something that is unpleasant to look at. Well, aren't you a sorry sight! Go get cleaned up and put on some fresh clothes.
See also: sight, sorry
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a sorry sight
  • sorry
  • it's too late for sorry
  • in a sorry state
  • say to
  • deserve better from
  • deserve better from (someone or something)
  • state
  • say (something) to (one)
  • sorry to say
References in classic literature
Then, seeing the mischief they had done, the Yanguesans with all the haste they could loaded their team and pursued their journey, leaving the two adventurers a sorry sight and in sorrier mood.
And when the play was over the graveyard was a sorry sight with trodden grass and broken headstones.
"It is a sorry sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause.
A SQUASHED animal at the side of the road is a sorry sight indeed.
'It was a very sorry sight. We were all afraid to get close.
Sorry sight Overflowing rubbish at the North Third Reservoir
For those in the former category, seeing thin or injured felines lurking around is a sorry sight to behold.
Sorry sight Aberdeen's Connor McLennan scores to make it 2-0
IT was a sorry sight to see our own prime minister humiliated by the other 27 members of the Euro club last week in Salzburg.
Some of the buildings have been empty for about six to 14 years, the windows are all smashed in and it's just a sorry sight. You've got homeless people sleeping around them.
Since then the boat, which used to attract revellers from across the north, has been a sorry sight, rusting away while its fate was determined.
Onlookers took to social media to share dramatic footages and photographs, describing it as a "sorry sight." One said: "What a terrible waste of a building, it should never have been allowed to stand empty for so long."
The inside of my eyes, doc said, was but a sorry sight,
An historic location listed as Grade II*, the sorry sight in our main picture, above, shows the area in and around India Buildings obliterated through enemy bombing after WWII.
A SORRY sight greets drinkers looking out of the high Victorian windows of the King's Head bar on Huddersfield station.