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PLAINTIVE
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Expressing sorrow
Synonyms:
mournful; plaintive
Classified under:
Similar:
sorrowful (experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss)
Derivation:
plaintiveness (expressing sorrowfulness)
Context examples:
A second question from us failed to elicit any answer at all, save a plaintive bleat from his wife to the effect that her husband was in a very violent temper already, and that she hoped we would do nothing to make it worse.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She could not think that Harriet's solace or her own sins required more; and she was therefore industriously getting rid of the subject as they returned;—but it burst out again when she thought she had succeeded, and after speaking some time of what the poor must suffer in winter, and receiving no other answer than a very plaintive—“Mr. Elton is so good to the poor!” she found something else must be done.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It was evident that his mind was not in working order yet, and his ideas needed clarifying, for often in the middle of a plaintive strain, he would find himself humming a dancing tune that vividly recalled the Christmas ball at Nice, especially the stout Frenchman, and put an effectual stop to tragic composition for the time being.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
