Standard Lemma guide

tristful

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Sad, melancholic.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

Examples

  • 1771, Elizabeth Griffith, The History of Lady Barton, London: T. Davies & T. Cadell, Volume 2, Letter 46, p. 184, I think, I want nothing but a ’squire as tristful as yourself, to record my misadventures in the stile of a ballad, called the Disastrous Traveller [...]

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: miserable, sorrowful, atrabiliary, atrabilious, blitheless, dispirited, blue, bummed out, chapfallen, cheerless, chopfallen, crestfallen, cut up, damp, dejected, depressed, despondent, disgruntled, disconsolate, disheartened, dismal, doleful, dolesome, down, down in the dumps, down in the mouth, downcast, downhearted, downsome, dull, elegiac, elegious, forlorn, gloomy, glum, grief-stricken, grieving, heavy-hearted, heartsore, heartsick, inconsolable, infelicitous, jawfallen, joyless, lachrymose, lamentful, low, low-spirited, lugubrious, lumpish, melancholic, melancholy, moody, mopey, morose, mournful, passionate, plaintive, Plutonian, Plutonic, querulous, ruthful, sad, saddened, saturnine, shattered, solemn, sombre, sorrow-ridden, sorrowsome, spiritless, sullen, threnetic, threnetical, triste, tristful, uncheerful, uncheery, unconsolable, unhappy, unlively, wistful, woe, woebegone, woeful, wretched

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English trystefull; equivalent to trist + -ful.