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plaintive

adj
/ˈpleɪntɪv/

Etymology

From Middle English pleintif, plentyff, from Old French pleintif (“aggrieved, lamenting”) (whence modern French plaintif), from plainte (“lament, complaint”); see plaint. Doublet of plaintiff.

  1. derived from pleintif — “aggrieved, lamenting”
  2. inherited from pleintif

Definitions

  1. Sounding sorrowful, mournful or melancholic.

    • a typically plaintive song from Radiohead
    • I can see by your plaintive smile something is wrong, so spill it.
    • When my wife and I heard a plaintive whinny from our laundry room the other day, we knew that our old dryer had cycled its last load.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for plaintive. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA