rueful
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Etymology tree
From Middle English ruful, rewful. By surface analysis, rue + -ful.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈɹuːfl̩/
Audio (Southern England): (file) Audio (General American): (file)
Adjective
[edit]rueful (comparative more rueful, superlative most rueful)
- Causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow, especially in a wry or humorous way.
- Synonyms: deplorable, pitiful, sorry; see also Thesaurus:lamentable, Thesaurus:regretful
- 2004, New York:
- "I like the young, andro look, but I've dated across the board—butches, femmes, trannies—and that really bothers Clara. All her girlfriends in the past have been pretty much straight." Kim offers a rueful little laugh.
- 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
- Merely, he received it with the rueful indulgence that he would show towards Tom when he came through with one of his solutions for ending world poverty or the arms race.
- Inspiring pity or compassion.
- Synonyms: pathetic, pitiable, pitiful, pitisome; see also Thesaurus:pitiful
- Bad; woeful; deplorable.
- Synonyms: unfavorable, negative; see also Thesaurus:bad
- 1714 September 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “TUESDAY, September 14, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 599; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
- The first who made the experiment was a merry-andrew, who was put into my hands by a neighbouring justice of peace, in order to reclaim him from that profligate kind of life. Poor Pickle-herring had not taken above one turn in it, when he came out of the cave, like a hermit from his cell, with a penitential look and a most rueful countenance.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]causing, feeling, or expressing regret or sorrow
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inspiring pity or compassion
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Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *pleh₁-
- English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English adjectives suffixed with -ful
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Emotions