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Webster 1913 Edition
Pensive
Pen′sive
,Adj.
1.
Thoughtful, sober, or sad; employed in serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing.
The
pensive
secrecy of desert cell. Milton.
Anxious cares the
pensive
nymph oppressed. Pope.
2.
Expressing or suggesting thoughtfulness with sadness;
as,
. pensive
numbersPrior.
Webster 1828 Edition
Pensive
PEN'SIVE
,Adj.
1.
Literally, thoughtful; employed in serious study or reflection; but it often implies some degree of sorrow, anxiety, depression or gloom of mind; thoughtful and sad, or sorrowful. Anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd.
2.
Expressing thoughtfulness with sadness; as pensive numbers; pensive strains.Definition 2024
pensive
pensive
English
A pensive expression.
Adjective
pensive (comparative more pensive, superlative most pensive)
- Having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.
- Looking thoughtful, especially from sadness.
- 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 4.
- Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce
- 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 4.
Derived terms
Translations
having the appearance of thinking
|
looking thoughtful or sad
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