rueful

rue·ful

adj \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)

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