plaintive

plain·tive

adjective \ˈplān-tiv\

Definition of PLAINTIVE

: expressive of suffering or woe : melancholy <a plaintive sigh>

— plain·tive·ly adverb

— plain·tive·ness noun

Examples of PLAINTIVE

1. We could hear the plaintive cry of a wounded animal in the woods.
2. <the puppy's plaintive expression after we put the toy away was rather amusing>

Origin of PLAINTIVE

Middle English plaintif grieving, from Anglo-French pleintif, plaintif, from plaint

First Known Use: 1579

Related to PLAINTIVE

Synonyms

aching, agonized, anguished, bemoaning, bewailing, bitter, deploring, doleful, dolesome, dolorous, funeral, grieving, heartbroken, lamentable, lugubrious, mournful, plangent, regretful, rueful, sorrowful, sorry, wailing, weeping, woeful

Related Words

dirgelike, elegiac (also elegiacal), melancholy; dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, dispirited, downcast, downhearted, heartsick, heartsore, inconsolable, tearful; brokenhearted, careworn, crestfallen, downcast, downhearted, forlorn, gloomy, glum, low-spirited, miserable, sad, triste, unhappy, woebegone; bawling, crying, groaning, howling, keening, moaning, yammering; bleeding, suffering; black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, dark, darkening, desolate, dismal, dreary, funereal, gloomy, glum, gray (also grey), joyless, low, miserable, moody, morbid, morose, pathetic, pessimistic, piteous, saturnine, somber (or sombre), sullen, wretched

Near Antonyms

delighted, exulting, glorying, happy, joyful, rejoicing, triumphant; bright, cheerful, cheering, cheery; laughing, smiling; blissful, blithe, blithesome, buoyant, jocund, jolly, joyous, lighthearted, merry, mirthful; encouraging, hopeful, optimistic; ecstatic, elated, euphoric, exhilarated, giddy, heady, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical)