rueful

rue·ful

adjective \ˈrü-fəl\

Definition of RUEFUL

1

: exciting pity or sympathy : pitiable <rueful squalid poverty … by every wayside — John Morley>

2

: mournful, regretful <troubled her with a rueful disquiet — W. M. Thackeray>

— rue·ful·ly \-fə-lē\ adverb

— rue·ful·ness noun

Examples of RUEFUL

1. He gave me a rueful smile and apologized.
2. <the rueful faces of friends and family who had gathered to pay their last respects>

First Known Use of RUEFUL

13th century

Related to RUEFUL

Synonyms

aching, agonized, anguished, bemoaning, bewailing, bitter, deploring, doleful, dolesome, dolorous, funeral, grieving, heartbroken, lamentable, lugubrious, plaintive, plangent, regretful, mournful, sorrowful, sorry, wailing, weeping, woeful

Antonyms

impenitent, remorseless, unapologetic, unrepentant

Related Words

dirgelike, elegiac (also elegiacal), melancholy; dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, dispirited, downcast, downhearted, heartsick, heartsore, inconsolable, tearful; brokenhearted, careworn, crestfallen, downcast, downhearted, forlorn, gloomy, glum, low-spirited, miserable, sad, triste, unhappy, woebegone; bawling, crying, groaning, howling, keening, moaning, yammering; bleeding, suffering; black, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, dark, darkening, desolate, dismal, dreary, funereal, gloomy, glum, gray (also grey), joyless, low, miserable, moody, morbid, morose, pathetic, pessimistic, piteous, saturnine, somber (or sombre), sullen, wretched

Near Antonyms

delighted, exulting, glorying, happy, joyful, rejoicing, triumphant; bright, cheerful, cheering, cheery; laughing, smiling; blissful, blithe, blithesome, buoyant, jocund, jolly, joyous, lighthearted, merry, mirthful; encouraging, hopeful, optimistic; ecstatic, elated, euphoric, exhilarated, giddy, heady, rapturous, rhapsodic (also rhapsodical)