WISTFUL in a Sentence

Learn WISTFUL from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For WISTFUL, below is one of 38 sentences:
Before quite leaving her he threw upon her face a wistful glance, as if he had misgivings on the generosity of forsaking her thus.

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 Meanings and Examples of WISTFUL
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
wistful
 a.  full of wishful yearning or longing; sadly thoughtful
Classic Sentence: (36 in 3 pages)
1  Then she tied it up with a smart red ribbon, and sat a minute looking at it with a sober, wistful expression, which plainly showed how earnest her work had been.
Little Women By Louisa May Alcott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER FOURTEEN
2  Jo thought she was asleep, she lay so still, and putting down her book, sat looking at her with wistful eyes, trying to see signs of hope in the faint color on Beth's cheeks.
Little Women By Louisa May Alcott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
3  I ordered him to set me down, and lifting up one of my sashes, cast many a wistful melancholy look towards the sea.
Gulliver's Travels 1 By Jonathan Swift
Context  Highlight   In PART 2: CHAPTER VIII.
4  The hermit cast a wistful look upon the knight, in which there was a sort of comic expression of hesitation, as if uncertain how far he should act prudently in trusting his guest.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVI
5  She looked so lovely and warm and wistful, his bowels stirred towards her.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 18
6  Before quite leaving her he threw upon her face a wistful glance, as if he had misgivings on the generosity of forsaking her thus.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 4: 6 A Conjuncture, and Its Result upon the Pedestrian
7  Just as they started he heard the sorrel's whinny again, and the familiar wistful call, and all the confused images it brought with it, went with him down the first reach of the road.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In IX
8  The girls looked at the hill in wistful longing, and the boys fretted and haunted Alexandria.
The Souls of Black Folk By W. E. B. Du Bois
Context  Highlight   In IV
9  She looked at him wistfully before she turned.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 10
10  Suddenly he had become almost wistfully moral, seeing himself the incarnation of good, and people like Mellors and Connie the incarnation of mud, of evil.
Lady Chatterley's Lover By D H Lawrence
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 19
11  He looked, wistfully, into their faces, one by one when they passed out, as though to see which way the greater number leant; but that was fruitless.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER LII
12  She looked wistfully at him with her sorrowful eyes as he said those words, and her aspect showed that more than one person in the room could deplore the possession of sensitiveness.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: 5 Perplexity among Honest People
13  He looked wistfully to the top of the bank at the woman who stood there, and his teeth, which were quite unimpaired, showed like parian from his parted lips.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: 6 The Figure against the Sky
14  He looked at her wistfully, then seemed to fall into a reverie, as if he were forgetting what he observed.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: 6 The Two Stand Face to Face
15  Eustacia, who had reddened when she perceived the effect of her exclamation upon the group below, was no longer to be seen at the window, though Yeobright scanned it wistfully.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: 3 The First Act in a Timeworn Drama
Example Sentence:
1  With a last wistful glance at the happy couples dancing in the hall, Sue headed back to her room to study for her exam.
2  I thought about those days in Spain and grew wistful.