Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a wistful manner; pensively; earnestly; longingly; wishfully.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a wistful manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a wistful manner

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

wistful +‎ -ly

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Examples

  • "Aunt Polly, please," she called wistfully, "isn't there any way you can be glad about all that -- duty business?"

    Pollyanna 1912

  • "Aunt Polly, please," she called wistfully, "isn't there ANY way you can be glad about all that -- duty business?"

    Pollyanna 1894

  • "It will cost a great deal," she said, looking wistfully from the yard into the crowded street, with its flaring lamps and the hoarse cries that came from it.

    Kirsteen: The Story of a Scotch Family Seventy Years Ago Margaret 1891

  • He even recalled wistfully the rustic peace of Hartleigh Hall.

    The English Witch Chase, Loretta 1988

  • They began to recall wistfully the cool streams of New England, the wooded slopes of

    The Moccasin Ranch A Story of Dakota Hamlin Garland 1900

  • All about against the wall the elders ranged at gaze, recalling wistfully or cheerfully, according to their temperaments, the days when they, too, tripped lightly to music and made love in a measure, and some old toes ached for

    The God of Love 1898

  • But are you sure, Mentor "-wistfully-" that you can't, or rather shouldn't, teach me any more than you have?

    Children of the Lens Smith, E. E. 1954

  • above, at 3:53, Assange reflects on his work as a black hat hacker in the early 1990s, recalling wistfully how he and others hacked into the

    Wired Top Stories Kim Zetter 2010

  • "I could wish --" wistfully, "That we had never come here -- 'twas I who brought you my poor Joseph, 'twas I, 'twas I."

    Crowded Out! and Other Sketches 1897

  • " She said the final word wistfully, hoped it hung in the room like perfume.

    Warning Signs White, Stephen, 1951- 2002

Comments

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  • "Then he smiled at me wistfully and went to sit by a girl with braces and a bad perm."- Twilight, Stephanie Meyer, pg.31

    October 27, 2010