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WISTFUL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Showing pensive sadness
Example:
the sensitive and wistful response of a poet to the gentler phases of beauty
Synonyms:
pensive; wistful
Classified under:
Similar:
sad (experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness)
Derivation:
wistfulness (a sadly pensive longing)
Context examples:
But the dogs were observant, and suddenly they stopped, turning their heads and looking back at their master out of eyes that were wistful and questioning.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Then she tied it up with a smart red ribbon, and sat a minute looking at it with a sober, wistful expression, which plainly showed how earnest her work had been.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The dogs were already pointing the way, each wistful and hoary muzzle turned toward the dim snow-path that left the main river trail and climbed the bank of the island.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
You are so changed, I sometimes think— there Amy stopped, with a half-timid, half-wistful look, more significant than her unfinished speech.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Jo thought she was asleep, she lay so still, and putting down her book, sat looking at her with wistful eyes, trying to see signs of hope in the faint color on Beth's cheeks.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It is always so quiet and pleasant here, it does me good, Meg, she used to say, looking about her with wistful eyes, as if trying to discover the charm, that she might use it in her great house, full of splendid loneliness, for there were no riotous, sunny-faced babies there, and Ned lived in a world of his own, where there was no place for her.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
It was bitter cold in the morning, she dropped her precious turnover in the gutter, Aunt March had an attack of the fidgets, Meg was sensitive, Beth would look grieved and wistful when she got home, and Amy kept making remarks about people who were always talking about being good and yet wouldn't even try when other people set them a virtuous example.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
All three wore suits of thin silver gray (their best gowns for the summer), with blush roses in hair and bosom, and all three looked just what they were, fresh-faced, happy-hearted girls, pausing a moment in their busy lives to read with wistful eyes the sweetest chapter in the romance of womanhood.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But there was an unconscious emphasis on the last word, and a wistful look in the eyes that never lost their childlike candor, which chilled Jo's heart for a minute with a forboding fear, and decided her to make her little venture 'soon'.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He stood so still that a squirrel, busy with its harvesting, ran down a pine close beside him, saw him suddenly and skipped back, scolding so shrilly that Beth looked up, espied the wistful face behind the birches, and beckoned with a reassuring smile.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
