Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Plaintive
1.
Repining; complaining; lamenting.
Dryden.
2.
Expressive of sorrow or melancholy; mournful; sad.
“The most plaintive ditty.” Landor.
Plain′tive-ly
, adv.
Plain′tive-ness
, Noun.
Webster 1828 Edition
Plaintive
PLA'INTIVE
,Adj.
1.
Complaining; expressing sorrow or grief; repining. To sooth the sorrows of her plaintive son.