Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To feel sorry, disappointed, distressed, or remorseful about.
  • intransitive verb To remember with a feeling of loss or sorrow; mourn.
  • intransitive verb To feel regret.
  • noun A feeling of sorrow, disappointment, distress, or remorse about something that one wishes could be different.
  • noun A sense of loss and longing for someone or something gone or passed out of existence.
  • noun A courteous expression of regret, especially at having to decline an invitation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To look back at with sorrow; feel grief or sorrowful longing for on looking back.
  • To grieve at; be mentally distressed on account of: as, to regret one's rashness; to regret a choice made.
  • Synonyms To rue, lament. See repentance.
  • noun Grief or trouble caused by the want or loss of something formerly possessed; a painful sense of loss; desire for what is gone; sorrowful longing.
  • noun Pain or distress of mind, as at something done or left undone; the earnest wish that something had not been done or did not exist; bitterness of reflection.
  • noun Dislike; aversion.
  • noun An expression of regret: commonly in the plural.
  • noun A written communication expressing sorrow for inability to accept an invitation.
  • noun Synonyms Concern, Sorrow, lamentation.
  • noun Penitence, Compunction, etc. See repentance.

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

  • transitive verb To experience regret on account of; to lose or miss with a sense of regret; to feel sorrow or dissatisfaction on account of (the happening or the loss of something)
  • noun Pain of mind on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing; grief; sorrow; especially, a mourning on account of the loss of some joy, advantage, or satisfaction.
  • noun obsolete Dislike; aversion.

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

  • verb To feel sorry about (a thing that has happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
  • verb more generally To feel sorry about (any thing).
  • noun The instance of such an emotion.

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

  • verb feel sad about the loss or absence of
  • verb express with regret
  • verb feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
  • verb decline formally or politely
  • noun sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English regretten, to lament, from Old French regreter : re-, re- + -greter, to weep (perhaps of Germanic origin).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English regretten, from Old French regreter, regrater ("to lament"), from re- (intensive prefix) + *greter, *grater (“to weep”), from Old Frankish *grētan ("to weep, mourn, lament"; from Proto-Germanic *grētanan (“to weep”)), and Old Frankish *grēotan (“to cry, weep”), from Proto-Germanic *greutanan (“to weep, cry”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrew- (“to weep, be sad”), equivalent to re- +‎ greet. Cognate with Middle High German grāzan ("to cry"), Old English grǣtan ("to weep, greet"), Old English grēotan ("to weep, lament"), Old Norse gráta ("to weep, groan"), Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐍄𐌰𐌽 (gretan, "to weep"). More at greet.

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Examples

Comments

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  • http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=727

    February 1, 2007

  • I regret not telling you earlier.

    May 13, 2009

  • 's okay.

    May 13, 2009

  • to feel sorry

    May 14, 2009

  • for example: I regret that Phillip didn't come to the Party; it was too bad

    May 14, 2009

  • to feel sorry

    May 14, 2009

  • I regret that I didn't go to the party.

    May 14, 2009

  • I regret taking candy from that baby.

    May 14, 2009

  • *to feel sorry about something that we have done already

    I regret that I didn't watch that movie.

    May 14, 2009

  • Regrets? I have a few, but then again, too few to mention.

    May 14, 2009

  • But did you do it your way, rol?

    May 14, 2009

  • I did what I had to do, and did it all to get attention.

    May 14, 2009

  • I have never really been bothered by one of these :o

    May 14, 2009

  • Did you also see it through without exemption?

    May 14, 2009

  • No, that was Frank.

    May 15, 2009

  • do u have regrets?

    June 19, 2011