Plaintive question about home (5)

I believe the answer is:

whiny

'plaintive' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'question about home' is the wordplay.
'question' becomes 'why' (I've seen this in other clues).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'home' becomes 'in' ('he's home' can mean 'he's in').
'why' placed around 'in' is 'WHINY'.

(Another definition for whiny that I've seen is " Peevishly moaning".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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