maestus (moest-), a, um, adj. [maereo, q. v.], full of sadness, sad, sorrowful, afflicted, dejected, melancholy (class.).
I Lit.: quid vos maestos tam tristesque esse conspicor? Plaut. Bacch. 4, 4, 18: id misera maestast, sibi eorum evenisse inopiam, id. Rud. 2, 3, 67; Cic. Div. 1, 28, 59: cum immolanda Iphigenia tristis Calchas esset, maestior Ulixes, etc., id. Or. 22, 74: maestus ac sordidatus senex, id. de Or. 2, 47, 195; id. Fam. 4, 6, 2: maestus ac sollicitus, Hor. S. 1, 2, 3: maestissimus Hector, Verg. A. 2, 270.—Of inanim. and abstr. things: maesto et conturbato vultu, Auct. Her. 3, 15, 27: maesta ac lugentia castra, Just. 18, 7: maestam attonitamque videre urbem, Juv. 11, 199: maesta manus, Ov. F. 4, 454: horrida pro maestis lanietur pluma capillis, id. Am. 2, 6, 5: comae, id. F. 4, 854: collum, id. Tr. 3, 5, 15: timor, Verg. A. 1, 202.—Poet., with inf.: animam maestam teneri, Stat. Th. 10. 775.—
II Transf. (poet. and in post-Aug. prose).
A Like tristis, gloomy, severe by nature: ille neci maestum mittit Oniten, Verg. A. 12, 514 (naturaliter tristem, severum, quem Graeci σκυθρωπὸν dicunt ἀγέλαστον, Serv.): tacitā maestissimus irā, Val. Fl. 5, 568: oratores maesti et inculti, gloomy , Tac. Or. 24.—
B In gen., connected with mourning; containing, causing , or showing sadness; sad, unhappy, unlucky : vestis, a mourning garment , Prop. 3, 4 (4, 5), 13: tubae, id. 4 (5), 11, 9: funera, Ov. F. 6, 660; cf.: ossa parentis Condidimus terrā maestasque sacravimus aras, Verg. A. 5, 48: a laevā maesta volavit avis, the bird of ill omen, Ov. Ib. 128: venter, exhausted with hunger , Lucil. ap. Non. 350, 33 (enectus fame, Non.).—Hence, adv., in two forms. *
A maestē , with sadness, saaly, sorrowfully : maeste, hilariter, Auct. Her. 3, 14, 24.—*
B maestĭter , in a way to indicate sorrow : maestiter vestitae, Plaut. Rud. 1, 5, 6.