WISTFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does wistful mean? 

• WISTFUL (adjective)
  The adjective WISTFUL has 1 sense:

1. showing pensive sadness

  Familiarity information: WISTFUL used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WISTFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing pensive sadness

Synonyms:

pensive; wistful

Context example:

the sensitive and wistful response of a poet to the gentler phases of beauty

Similar:

sad (experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness)

Derivation:

wistfulness (a sadly pensive longing)

 Context examples 

Old Ebbits regarded me with a wistful face.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He looked so wistful as he went away, hearing the frolic and evidently having none of his own.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It looked at them in a strangely wistful way, after the manner of a dog; but in its wistfulness there was none of the dog affection.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Then she looked into my upturned face with a very wistful smile.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards the sea.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I dare say he rarely spoke a dozen words in an hour: but his quiet interest, and his wistful face, found immediate response in both their breasts; each knew that the other liked him, and that he loved both; and he became what no one else could be—a link between them.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was now too fond of you often to simulate the first whim; and, when I stretched my hand out cordially, such bloom and light and bliss rose to your young, wistful features, I had much ado often to avoid straining you then and there to my heart.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In the morning, on opening his eyes, he beheld it regarding him with a wistful and hungry stare.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

"Not asleep, but so happy, dear. See, I found this and read it. I knew you wouldn't care. Have I been all that to you, Jo?" she asked, with wistful, humble earnestness.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Instead, and after a wistful, searching look, he snuggled in, burrowing his head out of sight between the master's arm and body.

(White Fang, by Jack London)