5 uses
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Definition
appearing deep in thought — typically looking sad or serious
- She was pensive a few minutes, then rousing herself, she said cheerfully — "But you two are my visitors to-night; I must treat you as such."Chapter 8 (54% in)
- Not a tear rose to Burns' eye; and, while I paused from my sewing, because my fingers quivered at this spectacle with a sentiment of unavailing and impotent anger, not a feature of her pensive face altered its ordinary expression.Chapter 6 (27% in)
- All three looked at each other, and all three smiled — a dreary, pensive smile enough.Chapter 30 (90% in)
- And then she would pout like a disappointed child; a pensive cloud would soften her radiant vivacity; she would withdraw her hand hastily from his, and turn in transient petulance from his aspect, at once so heroic and so martyr-like.Chapter 32 (21% in)
- One morning at breakfast, Diana, after looking a little pensive for some minutes, asked him, "If his plans were yet unchanged."Chapter 34 (29% in)
There are no more uses of "pensive" in Jane Eyre.
Typical Usage
(best examples)