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Wistful - 5 dictionary results
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wist⋅ful

   [wist-fuhl]
–adjective
1. characterized by melancholy; longing; yearning.
2. pensive, esp. in a melancholy way.
Origin:
1605–15; obs. wist quiet, silent, attentive (var. of whist 2 ) + -ful
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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Language Translation for : Wistful
Spanish: pensativo, melancólico, German: sehnsüchtig, Japanese: もの欲しそうな
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wist·ful     (wĭst'fəl)  Pronunciation Key 
adj.  
  1. Full of wishful yearning.
  2. Pensively sad; melancholy.


[From obsolete wistly, intently.]

wist'ful·ly adv., wist'ful·ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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wistful 
1613, "closely attentive," from obsolete wist "intent" (c.1500), of uncertain origin. Perhaps formed on the model of wishful. The meaning of "yearningly eager" is first recorded 1714.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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wistful

adjective
showing pensive sadness; "the sensitive and wistful response of a poet to the gentler phases of beauty" [syn: pensive] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Wistful

Wist"ful\, a. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from OE. wisly certainly (from Icel. viss certain, akin to E. wit). See Wish.]

1. Longing; wishful; desirous.

Lifting up one of my sashes, I cast many a wistful, melancholy look towards the sea. --Swift.

2. Full of thought; eagerly attentive; meditative; musing; pensive; contemplative.

That he who there at such an hour hath been, Will wistful linger on that hallowed spot. --Byron. -- Wist"ful*ly, adv. -- Wist"ful*ness, n.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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