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rueful
[ roo-fuhl ]
adjective
- causing sorrow or pity; pitiable; deplorable:
a rueful plight.
- feeling, showing, or expressing sorrow, repentance, or regret:
the rueful look on her face.
rueful
/ ˈruːfʊl /
adjective
- feeling or expressing sorrow or repentance
a rueful face
- inspiring sorrow or pity
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Derived Forms
- ˈruefully, adverb
- ˈruefulness, noun
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Other Words From
- rue·ful·ly adverb
- rue·ful·ness noun
- half-rue·ful adjective
- un·rue·ful adjective
- un·rue·ful·ness noun
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Word History and Origins
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Example Sentences
Then she paused, glanced away from the camera, and took a long, rueful breath.
Rueful laughter from both men turned to thoughtfulness in Stittsworth.
You can only ever see it from an outsider and comment on it with the rueful wisdom of a non participant.
A discussion of a London cheese shop sends her into paroxysms of rueful joy.
But most of them must be delivered from on the peninsula, where Bob is standing, casting a rueful eye on the whole show.
“You can pick which lines can come out,” Spitzer said with a rueful smile.
Gwynne regarded the thin sole of his house shoe with so rueful a countenance that the judge laughed outright.
Pale, lean, taciturn and somewhat deaf, he bore much resemblance to the Knight of the Rueful Countenance.
By this time he was in a wholly different mood; angry with himself, and full of rueful thought about his wife.
At the rueful outcry, Clifford turned, just in time to see the bobbing bundle disappear in the muddy water.
In order to carry out my wife's orders, I had to disentangle Susan from Liosha's embrace and pack her off rueful to the nursery.
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