How to Use wan in a Sentence
wan
adjective- She gave a wan laugh.
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Glenn, more slight, in the wan way of rock stars, slides in beside him.
— Sarah Scoles, Longreads, 8 June 2018 -
Many spots played it safe, with wan jokes that felt even lamer than usual.
— Seth Stevenson, Slate Magazine, 6 Feb. 2017 -
Even his wan but real identity as a black man and a hustler is robbed from him by the cops.
— San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Feb. 2018 -
Gaeng kiew wan gai Looking for something hot, hot, hot?
— Katherine Lagrave, CNT, 19 Sep. 2017 -
Spicer parried the onslaught with a wan smile and mumbled non sequiturs.
— Seth Stevenson, Slate Magazine, 10 Apr. 2017 -
MEN Travel can be tough on skin, leaving one wan and tired looking.
— Necee Regis, BostonGlobe.com, 1 May 2018 -
Many visitors take selfies, and the wan faces that stare back at them from their screens float adrift in nothing.
— I.w., The Economist, 18 July 2019 -
Melania’s surfacings since the election have been sparse, wan, and imbued with pathos.
— James Wolcott, The Hive, 19 June 2017 -
Last week, the slim 33-year-old with shaggy brown hair juggled a soccer ball on Seattle U’s field, looking fit, if a bit wan.
— Katherine Long, The Seattle Times, 10 June 2017 -
Due in part to the lack of widespread public interest, the show got few reviews, with most offering wan praise at best.
— Emma Grey Ellis, WIRED, 8 June 2018 -
Of course, censorship shapes crime writing here, which to some can make the genre seem relatively wan.
— New York Times, 4 June 2018 -
There's something for every foodie, from the not-so-spicy khao man gai (chicken with steamed rice) to the hot gaeng kiew wan gai (green curry, served with chicken).
— Bridget Hallinan, Condé Nast Traveler, 4 Apr. 2018 -
The distinguished pianist Radu Lupu was the soloist for a curiously wan performance of the Mozart concerto.
— Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 10 May 2017 -
The orchestra was sometimes wan but at other points gorgeously full.
— Laura Bleiberg, latimes.com, 30 July 2017 -
All of the hurried meals and abbreviated sleeping cause Tur and the press corps to gain weight, suffer frazzled nerves, and take on an often-wan appearance.
— Erik Spanberg, The Christian Science Monitor, 2 Oct. 2017 -
In the Edwardian era, his wan faces set in sumptuous dreamscapes came to seem as lifeless as Queen Victoria herself.
— J.s. Marcus, WSJ, 19 Oct. 2018 -
Would Jalen Hurts show some improvement as a passer after producing a wan stat line in the opener against Florida State?
— Matt Scalici, AL.com, 9 Sep. 2017 -
After all, when temperatures dip, skin loses its glow, and hair is slicked back under a hat, a statement brow is key to bringing structure and charm to a wan winter face.
— Monica Kim, Vogue, 12 Feb. 2018 -
The 1950s are now remembered as an age of wan conventionality.
— Mona Charen, National Review, 8 Sep. 2017 -
And while Asako is meant to be shown as repressing her feelings, Karata’s performance itself feels wan and underimagined.
— Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 24 July 2019 -
Minor, inconsequential, wan, harshly acidic are among the ways it is usually described — fit only as the base wine for a kir, an aperitif made by blending it with crème de cassis.
— Eric Asimov, New York Times, 28 June 2018 -
The left’s alternative to wan centrism was Mr. Sanders’s full-throated embrace of European-style social democracy.
— Edward Glaeser, WSJ, 9 Feb. 2017 -
The churros are extra crispy, stopping just short of being overdone; however, the accompanying chocolate sauce tasted wan.
— Michael Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle, 26 Jan. 2018 -
For decades bobal served primarily as the raw material for bulk wines produced by cooperatives, either for local consumption or export, where it was used to beef up wan reds.
— Eric Asimov, New York Times, 21 June 2018 -
The wan outreach to the public at large hasn’t spurred broad support for the bill; a Quinnipiac University poll found that only 17 percent of Americans backed the proposal — and that was before preexisting conditions were put at risk.
— Philip Bump, Washington Post, 2 May 2017 -
After 75 years, the gap between the muscular economic reality and America’s wan self-image is enormous.
— David Von Drehle, Twin Cities, 6 June 2019 -
But his opening statement sounded tonally thin and emotionally wan, while his breathless treatment of the second movement scherzo offered more velocity than insight.
— Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 13 June 2019 -
Others, like 10 Rittenhouse in Philadelphia, bear only a wan resemblance to the majestic architectural bluffs of Manhattan.
— Inga Saffron, Philly.com, 4 Apr. 2018 - She gave a wan laugh.
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wan.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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