Wistful

Definition: Wistful

Wistful

Adjective

1. Full of longing or unfulfilled desire; "those wistful little ads that the lovelorn place in the classifieds".

2. Showing pensive sadness; "the sensitive and wistful response of a poet to the gentler phases of beauty".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "wistful" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1726. (references)

Etymology: Wistful \Wist"ful\, adjective. [For wishful; perhaps influenced by wistly, which is probably corrupted from Old English wisly certainly (from Icelandic viss certain, akin to English wit). See Wish.]. (references)

Synonyms: Wistful

Care

Guarded, on one's guard; on the qui vivre, on the alert, on watch, on the lookout; awake, broad awake, vigilant; watchful, wakeful, wistful; Argus-eyed; wide awake; (intelligent); on the watch for (expectant).

Desire

Edge of appe edge of hunger; torment of Tantalus; sweet tooth, lickerish tooth; itching palm; longing eye, wistful eye, sheep's eye.

Adjective: desirous; desiring; Verb: inclined; (willing); partial to; fain, wishful, optative; anxious, wistful, curious; at a loss for, sedulous, solicitous. craving, hungry, sharp-set, peckish, ravening, with an empty stomach, esurient, lickerish, thirsty, athirst, parched with thirst, pinched with hunger, famished, dry, drouthy; hungry as a hunter, hungry as a hawk, hungry as a horse, hungry as a church mouse, hungry as a bear.

Feeling

Earnest, wistful, eager, breathless; fervent; fervid; gushing, passionate, warm-hearted, hearty, cordial, sincere, zealous, enthusiastic, glowing, ardent, burning, red-hot, fiery, flaming; boiling over.

Thought

Adjective: thinking; Verb: thoughtful, pensive, meditative, reflective, museful, wistful, contemplative, speculative, deliberative, studious, sedate, introspective, Platonic, philosophical.

Crosswords: Wistful

The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (1947)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Cast a Wistful Eye (reference)

• If I Found a Wistful Unicorn (reference)

• Wistful Embers: Reflections on Dying, or Not (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

He has read the wistful longing in my eyes

I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards the sea.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Expression using "wistful": wistful eye. Additional references.

Albanian

i trishtuar (blue, cheerless, comfortless, dark, disappointed, disappointing, doleful, down, dreary, elegiac, funereal, gloomy, grievous, joyless, lugubrious, melancholy, minor, mirthless, miserable, mopish, mournful, pensive, rueful, sad, tristful, unhappy, vapoury, wailful, wan, woebegone, woeful, woesome), i etur (agog, dry, eager, keen, parched, rapacious, ravenous, solicitous, thirsty, voracious), i dëshiruar (anxious, avid, fain, longing, wishful). (various references)

Arabic 

‏حزين (afflicted, cheerless, dejected, depressed, doleful, dolorous, downcast, drear, dreary, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholic, miserable, mournful, pathetic, plaintive, rueful, sad, sore, sorrowful, sorry, sullen, unhappy, wailful, weary, woeful), ‏تواق (anxious, craving, forward, hungry, longing, raring, solicitous, striven, studious, thirsty, wishful). (various references)

Bulgarian 

тъжен (bleak, cheerless, desolate, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, dull, dusky, elegiac, gloomy, heavy, joyless, lonesome, lugubrious, melancholy, minor, mirthless, mournful, pensive, plaintive, sad, sick, sickly, sorrowful, tristful, wan, woebegone, woeful), замислен (abstracted, broody, contemplative, grave, immersed in thought, intended, meditative, pensive, preoccupied, reflective, ruminant, thoughtful), изпълнен с копнеж, изпълнен с желание. (various references)

Czech

zamyšlený (broody, pensive), vážný (austere, dangerous, earnest, good, grave, major, mellow, pensive, portly, serious, solemn, solid, stern, straight, strong), tesklivý (nostalgic, sad), rozlítostnìný. (various references)

Farsi 

منتظر (Anticipant, Anticipator), متوجه (Attentive, Heedful, Tendentious), مشتاق (Agog, Anxious, Avid, Desirous, Eager, Earnest, Enthusiast, Enthusiastic, Fervid, Fond, Hippie, Hungry, Keen, Perfervid, Raring, Solicitous, Studious, Thirsty, Wilful, Wishful), ارزومند (Ambitious, Anxious, Avid, Desirous, Solicitous, Wishful), دقیق (Accurate, Astringent, Astute, Exquisite, Literal, Particular, Precise, Precision, Punctilious, Punctual, Scholastic, Scrutinizer, Set, Sound, Stringent, Subtle, Tender, Tenuous, Watchful), درانتظار (Expectant). (various references)

Finnish

kaihoisa (languishing, longing). (various references)

French

rêveur, nostalgique, mélancolique. (various references)

German

wehmütig (lugubrious, lugubriously, melancholy, nostalgic, poignant, sullen, wistfully). (various references)

Greek 

όλο καημό, σκεπτικόσ (broody, cogitative, contemplative, pensive, reflective, ruminant, ruminative, sceptic, sceptical, skeptical, speculative, thoughtful), σκεπτικός (pensive), μελαγχολικόσ (blue, broody, depressed, despondent, dismal, joyless, melancholic, melancholy, somber, sombre), ποθών (wishful, yearnful), αναπολών (reminiscent). (various references)

Hebrew 

ע�'מומי (bleak, cheerless, distressful, drear, sorrowful). (various references)

Hungarian

vágyakozó (agog, longing, thirsty, wishful), sóvárgó (desirous, emulous, languorous, longing, wishful, yearning). (various references)

Italian

sognante (dreamy), pieno di rammarico, malinconico (dismal, doleful, gloomy, hipped, melancholic, melancholy, morose, pensive, sad, saturnine, somber, sombre, wistfully). (various references)

Manx

yeearreeagh (importunate, soliciting, yearning), mianagh (appetible, inclination, solicitous, wishful, yearning). (various references)

Pig Latin

istfulway.(various references)

Portuguese

saudoso (homesick, melancholy, wishful), desejoso (anxious, desirous, hard set, hungry, solicitous, wishful), ansioso (agitated, agog, anxious, avid, care-worn, eager, hungry, impatient, longing, oppressing, preoccupated, solicitous, uneasy, wishful), anelante (wishful), ávido (acquisitive, appropriative, athirst, avid, eager, edacious, greedy, jejune, lickerish, rapacious, ravenous, wishful). (various references)

Romanian

visãtor (air-monger, brooding, castle builder, day dreamer, dreamer, lotus eater, moony, notional, pensive, starry eyed, thoughtful, visionary, wool gathering), pofticios (greedy, longing, wanton, wishful), plin de dor (lackadaisical, languid), nostalgic (nostalgic, nostalgically), melancolic (doleful, gloomily, gloomy, languorously, melancholically, melancholy, pensive, pensively, sad, somber, sombre, splenetic), meditativ (cogitative, meditating, meditative, meditatively, mused, museful, musing, musingly, pensive, pensively, speculative, thoughtful), galeş (lackadaisical), gânditor (meditative, meditatively, mind, mused, museful, musing, notionalist, pensive, speculative, thinker, thinking, thoughtful). (various references)

Russian 

тоскующий, тоскливый, задумчивый (broody, contemplative, meditative, pensive, reflective, ruminative, thoughtful). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

zamišljen (abstracted, imaginary, notional, pensive, reflective, ruminant, ruminative, thoughtful), čežnjiv (longing). (various references)

Spanish

pensativo (digestible, drear, dreary, meditative, pensive, reflective, ruminative, thinkable, thoughtful), anhelante (eager, longing, yearning). (various references)

Swedish

trånande (languishing, love-lorn, yearning), tankfull (contemplative, pensive, reflective, thoughtful). (various references)

Turkish

istekli (agog, ambitious, anxious, applicant, aspirant, athirst for, cheerful, covetous, dead set, desirous, devout, disposed, eager, enthusiastic, forward, full of zeal, hellbent, inclinable, inclined, intense, intent, itching, itchy, keen, minded, ready, solicitous, strong, thirsty, voracious, willing, wishful), hasret çeken, dalgın (absent, absent minded, abstracted, deep, distrait, dreamy, engrossed, far away, far off, faraway, glassy, lost, meditative, moony, pensive, plunged in thought, preoccupied, reflective, ruminant, ruminative, self-absorbed, stargazer, thoughtful, unheedful, vacant, vacuous, vague, wandering, woolgathering), düşünceli (abstracted, advised, circumspect, considerate, delicate, forethoughtful, meditative, minded, mindful, pensive, philosophic, philosophical, reflective, regardful, ruminant, ruminative, sophisticated, tactful, thoughtful, worried), arzulu (agog, ambitious, athirst for, avid, desirous, longing, prurient, solicitous, wishful, yearning), özlemiş (longing, sick). (various references)

Ukrainian

тужний (grievous, woebegone), тоскний (wailful, yearning), задумливий (broody, contemplative, museful, pensive, ruminant). (various references)

Vietnamese 

có vẻ thèm muốn, có vẻ khao khát có vẻ ngẫm nghĩ, có vẻ đăm chiêu. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "wistful": wistfully, wistfulness, wistfulnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Wistful" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: mittful, whistful, wisful, wisfull, wistfull, Witzum. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: flits, fusil, lifts, swift, wilts.

-3 letters: fils, fist, fits, flit, flus, lift, list, lits, litu, lust, sift, silt, slit, suit, tils, tuis, wilt, wist, wits.

-4 letters: fil, fit, flu, ifs, its, lis, lit, sit, til, tis, tui, uts, wis, wit.

-5 letters: if, is, it, li, si, ti, us, ut.

+2 letters: wistfully.

+3 letters: wulfenites.

+4 letters: wistfulness.