Unmarried and childless, Vera does not grow wistful wondering what she might be missing, nor is she given to the existential angst that so often plagues older male detectives.

He is happiest to be in a fight, and now that he has won, he sounded almost wistful, recognizing that he had run for office for the final time.

It makes me wistful for a real Lynx comic book.

His two most recent features, “Pain and Glory” and “Parallel Mothers,” were wistful affairs, the director last showing his sinister streak with 2011’s kinky, menacing “The Skin I Live in.”

There can be something wistful about even the most cheerful carols - and it's been a difficult year for the King, with his health problems.