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countable and uncountable, plural ruths
(archaic) Sorrow for the misery of another; pity, compassion; mercy. quotations
It was my fortune to be at Rome, upon a day that one Catena, a notorious high-way theefe, was executed: at his strangling no man of the companie seemed to be mooved to any ruth […].
1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 11, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]
[…] under her light eyebrows glimmered an eye devoid of ruth […].
1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], chapter IV, in Jane Eyre. An Autobiography. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], page 57
Scum they are! —Foe of mankind!Clear the sea! —Show no ruth!
2011, Turisas (Mathias Nygård), Hunting Pirates
(now rare) Repentance; regret; remorse. quotations
Now to your grave shall friend and stranger With ruth and some with envy come […].
1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XLIV, 2005, The Works of A. E. Housman , page 61
He mourned too lateIn ruth for the rending of the Round Table.
~1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur
(obsolete) Sorrow; misery; distress.
(obsolete) Something which causes regret or sorrow; a pitiful sight.