plaintive

How To Use plaintive In A Sentence

• A Scottish moor long bore the reputation for being haunted by a phantom flock of sheep, which were always heard "baaing" plaintively before a big storm. Animal Ghosts Or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter
• Aren't you a spoiled child, without the childness and the spoiling, to go and write in that plaintive, solemn way about 'help of some connexions of Jane's in Glasgow,' as if you were a desolate orphan Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle
• A fitful breeze stirred the pale foliage over her head, now and then showering her with pink petals from the lingering blossoms; from beneath her rose the damp sweet fragrance of soft earth and green grass, nearby a meadow-lark sang plaintively; somewhere a robin called arrogantly to his mate in the nest; from the valley, stretching below the sloping orchard, a violet mist lifted. Red-Robin
• Then I heard the red-head chattering and the plaintive mew of the sapsucker.
• After making modest progress on the phone, he follows up with a plaintive letter laying out his case in detail.
• We got it going, and after a while out came this rather wonderful, plaintive and poignant sound. Times, Sunday Times
• The fasciated honey-eater has loudly called “with a voice that seemed the very sound of happiness”; the leaden flycatcher, often silent but seldom still, has twittered and whispered plaintively; the sun-birds are playing gymnastics among the lemon blossoms, and the centre of activity for butterflies is the red-flowered shrub bordering the wavering path. Tropic Days
• If at times the voice of the song is plaintive, that is no more than a reflection of broken homesteads and sweltering emigrant ships. The Irish Mind
• The first tune was the Goltrai, a sad plaintive tune for all who died.
• It stood near the window; its thick trunk, barkless, with a rotten heart, prevented the light from entering the room; the bent, black branches, devoid of leaves, stretched themselves mournfully and helplessly in the air, and shaking to and fro, they creaked softly, plaintively. The Man Who Was Afraid