pensive

comparative more pensive · superlative most pensive

1. Engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought.

   He sat in pensive silence, weighing his options carefully.

2. Having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.

   The author’s tone grows pensive in the final chapters.

   1 more example

   [T]he donkey, pensive, with bowed head, twitching his ears from time to time, thinking the tempest of stones had not yet ended and was still falling around his head […].

   Part 1 published in 1605, Part 2 in 1615, translated in 2003, Miguel de Cervantes and translated by Edith Grossman, Don Quixote, page 172

3. Looking thoughtful, especially from sadness.

   Through the deep grass the faces of the three children glowed like pensive moons.

   1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 21

   1 more example

   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, published 1973, § 4