Meaning of WISTFUL
| Pronunciation: | | 'wistful
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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- [adj] showing pensive sadness; "the sensitive and wistful response of a poet to the gentler phases of beauty"
- [adj] full of longing or unfulfilled desire; "those wistful little ads that the lovelorn place in the classifieds"
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| | Synonyms: | | pensive, sad, yearning |
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| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Wist"ful\, a. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by
wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly
(from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See {Wish}.]
1. Longing; wishful; desirous.
Lifting up one of my sashes, I cast many a wistful,
melancholy look towards the sea. --Swift.
2. Full of thought; eagerly attentive; meditative; musing;
pensive; contemplative.
That he who there at such an hour hath been, Will
wistful linger on that hallowed spot. --Byron.
-- {Wist"ful*ly}, adv. -- {Wist"ful*ness}, n.
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