How to Use wan in a Sentence

wan

adjective

• She gave a wan laugh.
• 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.

Last Updated: 16 Sep 2024