plaintive

Even Veronika had the sense not to repeat her plaintive question, “I wonder how they heard of me.”

The words seemed to come from outside her, but it was only a whippoorwill offering its plaintive, three-note cry.

Tom Petty vowing not to back down sounds plaintive and aspirational.

This pageant of puppetry includes a flutter of butterflies, a goat with a plaintive bleat, a menagerie of wild animals and, at one point, a school of glowing fish.

The English horn issued a plaintive, simple melody, as if trying to evoke older memories of a nearly forgotten time.