Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Full of regret; sorrowful or sorry.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Full of regret; sorrowful.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Full of regret; indulging in regrets; repining.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Full of feelings of regret, indulging in regrets.
  • adjective Sorrowful about what has been lost or done.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective feeling or expressing regret or sorrow or a sense of loss over something done or undone

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

regret +‎ -ful

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word regretful.

Examples

  • It is the winds of God that dries my vain regretful tears,

    May 2004 2004

  • He called these manipulators "regretful" but never clearly indicated who they were.

    Shirin Sadeghi: Still-President Mubarak's Second Round of Threats Shirin Sadeghi 2011

  • He called these manipulators "regretful" but never clearly indicated who they were.

    Shirin Sadeghi: Still-President Mubarak's Second Round of Threats Shirin Sadeghi 2011

  • In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi called it "regretful" that all sides were hard-line in their campaigns.

    Fascist Rule in Israel 2009

  • _Wonderful Woman_ is perhaps less a novel than an analysis -- painfully close, with a kind of regretful brutality in it -- of one special type of femininity, and a glance at several others.

    Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, October 7, 1914 Various

  • She talked of it sort of sad, kind of regretful, as if she was sorry, but felt that it had to be.

    The Man with Two Left Feet And Other Stories 1928

  • And then, how Constance would have smiled over Beatrice's ideals -- her "fluffy" evenings -- in a kind of regretful, wondering way; almost as she had smiled when she first called me "Dick," in asking what had become of our staid English reserve; as she watched the noisy crowd in Fleet Street, singing its silly doggerel about England's security and England's "dibs."

    The Message 1912

  • Anyone placing sanctions on Iran would be "regretful", President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.

    BBC - Ouch 2010

  • Speaking on the drills 'fourth day, Guards commander Massoud Jazayeri said Iran had a deterrence plan which would make the enemy "regretful" if they launched any attack against the country, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

  • Speaking on the drills 'fourth day, Guards commander Massoud Jazayeri said Iran had a deterrence plan which would make the enemy "regretful" if they launched any attack against the country, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.