Dictionary

regretful en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re-der. Old French re- Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁d-der. Proto-Germanic *grētaną Frankish *grātander. Old French *greter Old French regreterbor. Middle English regretten English regret Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós Proto-Germanic *fullaz Proto-Germanic *-fullaz Old English -ful Middle English -ful English -ful English regretful From regret + -ful.

Meanings

1. Full of feelings of regret, indulging in regrets.
   • Smith heaved a regretful sigh. "I fear," he said, "I have made precisely the blamed fool of myself that Comrade Parker hoped I would." 1912, P. G. Wodehouse, The Prince and Betty:
   • Now, it is our regretful task to record his death on November 19 after a brief illness, and to include in a short article on page 29 some notes on his multifarious activities. 1943 January and February, “Charles S. Lake”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:
   • A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. 1927, Bertrand Russell, “What We Must Do”, in Why I Am Not a Christian:
   • There was a feeling of utter desolation in my heart, filling it with a despairing and regretful sense, that I had not gone down with Robert to the bottom of the sea. 1853, Solomon Northup, edited by [David Wilson], Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, →OCLC:
   • And there, aloof, yet persistently with her, moving wherever she moved, was the Will Ladislaw' who was a changed belief exhausted of hope, a detected illusion—no, a living man towards whom there could not yet struggle any wail of regretful pity, from the midst of scorn and indignation and jealous offended pride. 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):
   • But, as their flowery garland was wreathed of the brightest roses that had grown there, so, in the tie that united them, were intertwined all the purest and best of their early joys. They went heavenward, supporting each other along the difficult path which it was their lot to tread and never wasted one regretful thought on the vanities of Merry Mount. 1837 March 6, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “(please specify the chapter or story)”, in Twice-Told Tales, Boston, Mass.: American Stationers Co.; John B. Russell, →OCLC:
   • “I am working late to-night,” said I, “because I couldn't sleep, and wished to tire myself. But, dear guardian, you are late too, and look weary. You have no trouble, I hope, to keep you waking?” “None, little woman, that you would readily understand,” said he. He spoke in a regretful tone so new to me, that I inwardly repeated, as if that would help me to his meaning, “That I could readily understand!” 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC:
   • The early moon had drenched the arches with pale blue, and, weaving over the night, in and out of the gossamer rifts of moon, swept a song, a song with more than a hint of sadness, infinitely transient, infinitely regretful. 1920 April, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “Spires and Gargoyles”, in This Side of Paradise, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book I (The Romantic Egotist), page 45:
   • But its overall feel is a stark and regretful one, with sentimentality ("Catching an all-night station / Somewhere in Louisiana / Sounds like 1963 / But for now it sounds like heaven") vying for dominance with mordancy ("Driving down sunny 44 highway / There's a beach there known for cancer"). 1995 August 4, Bill Wyman, “Son Volt”, in Chicago Reader:
   • Huck scanned his own clothing forlornly. "I reckon I ain't dressed fitten for a pirate," said he, with a regretful pathos in his voice; "but I ain't got none but these." 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC:
   • The regretful fact is that rugby players, despite being infinitely more professional than most of their oikball counterparts, do not earn enough money from the game to not have to work again. 2007 November 5, Brian Moore, “Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt are confused”, in The Telegraph:
   • Notwithstanding the padre's regretful humiliations, from a lack of thoughtful consideration, he could not withhold a retortful reminder from his old noli me tangere opponent, of his more flagrant assumption; 1877, Elton R. Smilie, The Manatitlans: Or, A Record of Scientific Explorations in the Andean La Plata, S.A., page 466:
   • I continued also the wish to be with you, and experienced a strange, regretful consciousness of some barrier dividing us. 1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC:
2. Sorrowful about what has been lost or done.
   • "Hell, mebbe we oughtn't've done that." Tony was regretful. 2000, Richard Wright, The long dream:
   • feel deeply regretful
   • Before dawn on Sunday ew had put Nagasaki behind us and were off on our 445 mile sail to Shanghai, regretful at leaving a country and a people who had entertained us so lavishly and free-heartedly for a week that always will be a luster of red letter days in the memory of all. 1909, Robert H. Murray, Around the World with Taft:
   • The format is simple enough: a few seconds of the poster's face looking regretful with an ominous tone from the film's soundtrack playing underneath. The text on screen describes how it feels to watch someone make a terrible or embarrassing decision, but are unable to do anything to interfere because it is a canon event". 2023 May 15, Matilda Boseley, “'A form of acceptance': TikTok's new trend of 'canon events'”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Dec 2023:
   • "Dionne, one: I am seriously regretful over last night's lapse," 1997, H. B. Gilmour, Cher and Cher alike:
   • All of us, whether we gather into a wisp of snipes, a wisdom of owls, a wing of plovers, or remain like a single regretful priest on his knees before his God, we are one and it is not for us to decide another's fate. 2016, Gary Barwin, Yiddish for Pirates: A Novel, →ISBN, page 91:
   • feel bitterly regretful
   • feel sincerely regretful

Forms

Antonyms

unregretful · unrueful · unsorry · unrepining

Deriveds

regretfully · unregretful · regretfulness

Hypernyms

sad

Hyponyms

remorseful · penitent

Synonyms

repining · rueful · remorseful · rueful · regretful · sorry · repining

Translations (22)

fa پشیمان (full of regret) · sv ångerfylld (full of regret) · az peşman (full of regret) · el μετανιωμένος (full of regret) · pdt leet (nds) (full of regret) · de bedauernd (full of regret) · fi katuvainen (full of regret) · ru жале́ющий (full of regret) · ckb پەشیمان (full of regret) · pt arrependido (full of regret) · de reuevoll (full of regret) · az heyifsilənən (sorrowful about what has been lost or done) · ru ка́ющийся (full of regret) · az kədərlənən (sorrowful about what has been lost or done) · az mütəəssif (sorrowful about what has been lost or done) · es arrepentido (full of regret) · ota پشیمان (full of regret) · ga aiféalach (full of regret) · el περίλυπος (full of regret) · ru опеча́ленный (sorrowful about what has been lost or done) · sv ångefull (full of regret) · ru сожале́ющий (full of regret)