Definition of "rue"

rue¹

/ɹuː/

noun
uncountable
1. (archaic or dialectal) Sorrow; repentance; regret.
2. (archaic or dialectal) Pity; compassion.

rue²

/ɹuː/

verb
third-person singular simple present rues, present participle ruing or rueing, simple past and past participle rued
1. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to repent of sin or regret some past action.
2. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to feel sorrow or pity.
3. (transitive) To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place.
  Quotations
  I wept to see, and rued it from my heart.
  1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volumes (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857,
  Thy will chose freely what it now so justly rues.
  1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 4
  And feminization of the homeland is something to be rued, while the feminized humiliation of the enemy for the sake of the fatherland is cause for commendation and celebration.
  2009, David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race
  As far as they were concerned, he must be ruing the day he ever met Sally.
  2009, Erica James, It's The Little Things
  And was the fact she was no longer losing large chunks of time something to be celebrated or something to be rued?
  2012, Joy Fielding, Still Life
  “If we get in a fight, you'll be ruing your lack of training.”
  2014, Gary Meehan, True Fire
  Bet you rue the day you kissed a writer in the dark
  2017, Lorde (lyrics and music), “Writer in the Dark”
4. (archaic, intransitive) To feel compassion or pity.
  Quotations
  Madame, reweth upon my peynes smerte
  Late 14th century Geoffrey Chaucer, ‘The Franklin's Tale’, Canterbury Tales
  which stirred men's hearts to rue upon them
  1842, Nicholas Ridley, The Life of Nicholas Ridley
5. (archaic, intransitive) To feel sorrow or regret.
  Quotations
  Old year, we'll dearly rue for you.
  1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Death of the Old Year”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […]

rue³

/ɹuː/

noun
plural rues
1. Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines.
  Quotations
  But th'aged Nourse, her calling to her bowre, / Had gathered Rew, and Savine, and the flowre / Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill [...].
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
  Ophelia:There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue for you; and here’s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference.
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene v]
  The life of one plant would be affected by another. Rue was definitely hostile to basil, rosemary to hyssop, but coriander, dill and chervil lived on the friendliest of terms[.]
  1940, Rosetta E. Clarkson, Green Enchantments: The Magic Spell of Gardens, The Macmillan Company, page 253

Definition of "rue"

rue1

noun

rue2

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

rue3

noun

Quotations

rue¹

rue²

rue³