rue
Plural: rues
Noun
- European strong-scented perennial herb with grey-green bitter-tasting leaves; an irritant similar to poison ivy
- leaves sometimes used for flavoring fruit or claret cup but should be used with great caution: can cause irritation like poison ivy
- sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment
- "to his rue, the error cost him the game"
- (French) a street or road in France
- Sorrow; repentance; regret.
- Pity; compassion.
- Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines.
Verb
Verb Forms: rued, ruing, rues
- To bitterly regret or feel sorrow for something done.
- feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
- To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
- To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
- To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
- To feel compassion or pity.
- To feel sorrow or regret.
Examples
- He would RUE the moment he exchanged his ’S’ tile, missing a bingo opportunity.
- I rued the day I crossed paths with her.
- to rue the day
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English rewe, reowe, from Old English hrēow (“sorrow, regret, penitence, repentance, penance”), from Proto-West Germanic *hreuwu (“pain, sadness, regret, repentance”). Cognates include German reuen (“to regret, to repent”) and Dutch berouwen (“to regret, to repent”).
Probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krows-. If so, note the same sense evolution with in this case cognate Russian круши́ть (krušítʹ, “to destroy, to shatter”), Russian сокруша́ться (sokrušátʹsja, “to be distressed, to grieve (for, over)”). Also compare Czech truchlit from Proto-Slavic *truxlъ.
Synonyms
herb of grace, regret, repent, ruefulness, Ruta graveolens, sorrow, afterthink, agenbite, aggrieve, attrist, begloom, begrieve, besorrow, bleed, blueness, blues, bowels, bring down, commiserate, commiseration, compassion, compassionate, compunction, condole, contristate, contrition, crestfallenness, dash, deject, dejection, deprecate, depress, depression, desolate, despondency, dispirit, distress, dolefulness, downheartedness, drearihead, empathy, engrieve, erme, feel someone's pain, feel sorry for, fellow feeling, forlornness, forset, forthink, get down, gloom, grief, grieve, grieven, heartsore, ill-being, infelicity, lament, loving-kindness, melancholia, melancholy, mercify, mercy, misery, mishappiness, moan, mourn, oppress, penitence, pity, prosternation, put the fear of God into, remorse, repentance, rue, ruth, sadden, sadden up, sadness, self-reproach, sigh, sorriness, sorrowfulness, sympathy, take pity, tenderheartedness, think over, tristfulness, tristitiate, undelight, ungladden, unhappiness, unhappy, upset, wayment, woe, woefare, wretchedness, yearn
Scrabble Score: 3
rue: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordrue: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
rue: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary