Definition of wistful
1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy; also : inspiring such yearning a wistful memoir
2 : musingly sad : pensive a wistful glance
wistfulness
nounIndulge Your Inner Word Nerd
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Examples of wistful in a Sentence
She was wistful for a moment, then asked, “Do you remember the old playground?”.
He had a wistful look on his face.
Recent Examples of wistful from the Web
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Hebert even ends each show with a wistful plea to remember and support those aging nuns today as their orders shrink in size.
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Few people in Syria have any patience for this kind of wistful talk.
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Would-be impulse buyers turn into wistful window shoppers, and brands miss out on millions of dollars in sales.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'wistful'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Wistful Has a Wishful History
Are you yearning to know the history of wistful? If so, we can ease your melancholy a little by telling you that wistful comes from a combination of wishful and wistly, a now obsolete word meaning "intently." We can't say with certainty where wistly came from, but it may have sprung from whistly, an old term meaning "silently" or "quietly." How did the supposed transition from a word meaning "quietly" to one meaning "intently" come about? That's something to muse about, but the answer isn't known.
Origin and Etymology of wistful
blend of wishful and obsolete English wistly intently
First Known Use: 1714
WISTFUL Defined for English Language Learners
wistful
playDefinition of wistful for English Language Learners
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: having or showing sad thoughts and feelings about something that you want to have or do and especially about something that made you happy in the past
WISTFUL Defined for Kids
wistful
playDefinition of wistful for Students
: feeling or showing a quiet longing especially for something in the past
wistfully
\-fə-lē\ adverb There had been a time, he remembered it wistfully, when things had been quite different … — Robert Lawson, Rabbit Hillwistfulness
nounLearn More about wistful
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See words that rhyme with wistful Spanish Central: Translation of wistful Nglish: Translation of wistful for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of wistful for Arabic speakers
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