rue

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To feel regret, remorse, or sorrow for.
2. v. To feel regret, remorse, or sorrow.
3. n. Sorrow; regret: "To their rue, the Social Democrats have to acknowledge that the Conservative-Liberal coalition has captured the center where elections are won” ( Elizabeth Pond).
4. n. Any of various aromatic southwest Asian or Mediterranean plants of the genus Ruta, especially the ornamental R. graveolens, having bipinnately compound leaves that yield an acrid volatile oil formerly used in medicine.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. . To cause to grieve; make repentant, compassionate, or sorrowful; afflict: often used impersonally with a personal pronoun.
2. To repent of; feel remorse for; regret; hence, to suffer in expiation of: as, to rue one's folly or mistakes.
3. To feel sorrow or suffering on account of; suffer from or by; experience loss or injury from.
4. To have or take pity on; feel sorry for; compassionate.
5. To repent of and withdraw, or try to withdraw, from: as, to rue a bargain. See rue-bargain.
6. To be sorrowful; experience grief or harm; suffer; mourn.
7. To repent; feel remorse or regret.
8. To have pity; have compassion or mercy: often followed by on or upon.
9. n. Sorrow; repentance.
10. n. Any plant of the genus Ruta, especially R. graveolens, the common or garden rue, a native of the Mediterranean region and western Asia, and elsewhere common in cultivation. It is a woody herb of bushy habit, 2 or 3 feet high, with decompound leaves, the leaflets of a bluish-green color, strongly dotted. The flowers are greenish-yellow and corymbed, and are produced all summer. The plant has a strong disagreeable odor, and the leaves are extremely acrid, even producing blisters. In antiquity and the middle ages rue was highly esteemed as a medicine, and was believed to ward off contagion. It has the properties of a stimulant and antispasmodic, but accompanied by excitant and irritant tendencies. It is not now officinal, but continues somewhat in popular use. In medieval folk-lore it was a common witches' drug. From its supposed virtues, or by association with the word rue, repentance, it was formerly called herb-of-grace.

Wiktionary

1. n. archaic Repentance, regret.
2. n. archaic Pity, compassion.
3. v. obsolete, transitive To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
4. v. obsolete, transitive To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
5. v. transitive To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
6. v. archaic, intransitive To feel compassion or pity.
7. n. Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens, formerly used in medicines.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A perennial suffrutescent plant (Ruta graveolens), having a strong, heavy odor and a bitter taste; herb of grace. It is used in medicine.
2. n. Fig.: Bitterness; disappointment; grief; regret.
3. v. To lament; to regret extremely; to grieve for or over.
4. v. obsolete To cause to grieve; to afflict.
5. v. Prov. Eng. To repent of, and withdraw from, as a bargain; to get released from.
6. v. obsolete To have compassion.
7. v. To feel sorrow and regret; to repent.
8. n. obsolete Sorrow; repetance.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
2. n. (French) a street or road in France
3. n. sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment
4. n. European strong-scented perennial herb with grey-green bitter-tasting leaves; an irritant similar to poison ivy
5. n. leaves sometimes used for flavoring fruit or claret cup but should be used with great caution: can cause irritation like poison ivy