plaintive
[pleyn-tiv]
- expressing sorrow or melancholy; mournful: a plaintive melody.
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Origin of plaintive
Synonyms
See more synonyms for plaintive on Thesaurus.comwistful, sorrowful, sad.
Antonyms
happy, joyful.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for plaintive
Contemporary Examples
Hamer declared in her plaintive, outspoken way: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!”
Remembering Civil Rights Heroine Fannie Lou Hamer: 'I'm Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired'Lottie L. Joiner
September 2, 2014
Hence the plaintive email from inside the bunker at Walmart in February.
What a strange, plaintive philosophy for someone whose profession involved sitting alone most of the day: love the world.
It was a message rejected as too plaintive and apologetic by the black America of 1950.
He also has a precocious attraction to his favorite nurse, Ingrid, who sings to him every night in a “plaintive voice.”
Historical Examples
Yet the thought of her had persisted as a plaintive undertone through all the days after.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
Burke inquired in desperation before the plaintive outburst.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
It is bitter in Baudelaire, sweet and plaintive in Lamartine, mystic in Verlaine.
De ProfundisOscar Wilde
Yet he managed to utter a plaintive thought, showing at least that he realised his position.
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
She clasped her hands, suddenly carrying her urgency to plaintive entreaty.
Alice AdamsBooth Tarkington
plaintive
- expressing melancholy; mournful
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French plaintif grieving, from plainte plaint
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for plaintive
adj.
late 14c., "lamenting," from Old French plaintif "complaining; wretched, miserable," from plainte (see plaint). Sense of "mournful, sad" first recorded 1570s. Related: Plaintively; plaintiveness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper