wistfully

comparative more wistfully · superlative most wistfully

1. In a wistful manner.

   Seasoned runners speak wistfully of getting in the zone, of running as meditation or going into autopilot, powering through the miles.

   2013 October 7, Tory Frost, “Going the distance: breaking through the boredom barrier”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2016

   1 more example

   The difference here is that the protagonists in this collection are, for the most part, at the end of their lives, and so the news of familial drama and divorce and the cocktail parties, barbecues and casual wooings of quotidian life in suburbia is given retrospectively, wistfully, presented in the larger context as memories of lost moments and lost opportunities.

   2009 June 7, T. Coraghessan Boyle, “The Road Home”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2021