plaintive

Main Entry:
plaintive [pleyn-tiv]
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: pathetic, woebegone
Synonyms: beefing, bellyaching, cantankerous, crabby, cranky*, disconsolate, doleful, grief-stricken, grievous, grousing, grumpy*, heartrending, lamenting, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, out of sorts, pathetic, piteous, pitiful, rueful, sad, saddening, sorrowful, wailing, wistful, woeful
Notes: a plaintiff is the party who brings an action in a court of law, while plaintive means expressive of sorrow or melancholy
Antonyms: cheerful, happy
Main Entry: doleful
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: depressing
Synonyms: afflicted, cast down, cheerless, crestfallen, dejected, depressed, dirgeful, dismal, dispirited, distressing, dolent, dolorous, down, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, dreary, forlorn, funereal, gloomy, grieving, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, painful, piteous, pitiful, plaintive, rueful, sad, somber, sorrowful, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheerful, elated, glad, gleeful, happy, joyful
Main Entry: dolorous
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: miserable, anguished
Synonyms: afflicted, afflictive, calamitous, deplorable, dire, distressing, doleful, dolent, dolesome, dolorific, grievous, harrowing, heart-rending, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, mournful, painful, plaintive, regrettable, rueful, ruthful, sad, sorrowful, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheery, happy, hopeful
Main Entry: irritable
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: bad-tempered, crabby
Synonyms: annoyed, bearish, brooding, cantankerous, carping, choleric, complaining, contentious, crabbed, cross, crotchety, disputatious, dissatisfied, dyspeptic, easily offended, exasperated, fiery, fractious, fretful, fretting, gloomy, grouchy, grumbling, hasty, hot, huffy, hypercritical, ill-humored, irascible, moody, morose, out of humor, oversensitive, peevish, petulant, plaintive, prickly, querulous, quick-tempered, resentful, sensitive, snappy, snarling, surly, tense, testy, touchy
Antonyms: cheerful, happy, nice
Main Entry: lamentable
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: upsetting, miserable
Synonyms: afflictive, awful, bad, calamitous, deplorable, dire, dirty, distressing, doleful, dolorous, god-awful, grievous, grim, heartbreaking, hurting, lousy, low, lugubrious, meager, mean, melancholy, mournful, pitiful, plaintive, poor, regretful, rotten, rueful, sad, sorrowful, stinking, tragic, unfavorable, unfortunate, unsatisfactory, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: cheering, fortunate, good, lucky, satisfactory
Main Entry: pathetic
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: sad, affecting
Synonyms: commiserable, deplorable, distressing, feeble, heartbreaking, heartrending, inadequate, lamentable, meager, melting, miserable, moving, paltry, petty, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, puny, rueful, sorry*, tender, touching, useless, woeful, worthless, wretched
Antonyms: cheerful, happy, useful, worthwhile
Main Entry: piteous
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: miserable, pathetic
Synonyms: beseeching, commiserable, deplorable, distressing, doleful, dolorous, entreating, grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending, imploring, lamentable, melancholy, mournful, moving, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, poignant, poor, rueful, ruined, sad, sorrowful, supplicating, woeful, wretched
Notes: piteous is generally not used when speaking of people, pitiable means 'able to be pitied,' and pitiful most often means 'insignificant; below contempt'
Antonyms: cheerful, happy
Main Entry: querulous
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: grouchy, hard to please
Synonyms: bearish, bemoaning, cantankerous, captious, carping, censorious, complaining, critical, cross, crying, deploring, discontented, dissatisfied, edgy, fault-finding, fretful, grousing, grumbling, grumbly, huffy irascible, irritable, lamenting, out of sorts peevish, petulant, plaintive, scrappy, snappy, sour, testy, thin-skinned touchy, uptight, wailing, waspish, waspy, whimpering, whining, whiny
Antonyms: cheerful, easy-going, happy
Main Entry: sorrowful
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: very upset; grieving
Synonyms: affecting, afflicted, dejected, depressed, disconsolate, distressing, doleful, dolent, full of sorrow, grievous, heartbroken, heartrending, heavy-hearted, hurting, in mourning, in pain, in sorrow, lamentable, lugubrious, melancholy, miserable, mournful, painful, piteous, plaintive, rueful, ruthful, sad, sick at heart, singing the blues, sorry, tear-jerking, tearful, unhappy, woebegone, woeful, wretched
Antonyms: delighted, happy, joyful
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