(adj.adv.) : maestus (moest-), a, um, adj. maereo, q. v.
* Full of sadness, sad, sorrowful, afflicted, dejected, melancholy (class.).
* 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.
* Transf. (poet. and in post-Aug. prose).
* 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.
* 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. *
* Maestē, with sadness, saaly, sorrowfully: maeste, hilariter,Auct. Her. 3, 14, 24.—*
* Maestĭter, in a way to indicate sorrow: maestiter vestitae,Plaut. Rud. 1, 5, 6.

s. TLL