rueful

rueful
    adj 1: feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses
           [syn: {contrite}, {remorseful}, {rueful}, {ruthful}]
    

Rueful \Rue"ful\ (r[udd]"f[.u]l), a.
   1. Causing one to rue or lament; woeful; mournful; sorrowful.
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   2. Expressing sorrow. "Rueful faces." --Dryden.
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            Two rueful figures, with long black cloaks. --Sir W.
                                                  Scott.
      [1913 Webster] -- {Rue"ful*ly}, adv. -- {Rue"ful*ness}, n.
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86 Moby Thesaurus words for "rueful":
      addicted, affecting, afflictive, aggrieved, anguished, ashamed,
      bitter, bleak, careworn, cheerless, comfortless,
      conscience-smitten, conscience-stricken, deplorable, depressed,
      depressing, depressive, despairing, despondent, discomforting,
      dismal, dismaying, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorific,
      dolorogenic, dolorous, dreary, dumb with grief, full of remorse,
      grief-stricken, griefful, grieved, grievous, hopeless, in grief,
      joyless, lamentable, lugubrious, miserable, mournful, moving,
      oppressed, painful, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful,
      plaintive, plangent, plunged in grief, poignant, poor, regretful,
      regrettable, remorseful, repining, ruthful, sad, saddening,
      self-accusing, self-condemning, self-convicting, self-debasing,
      self-flagellating, self-humiliating, self-punishing,
      self-reproaching, shamefaced, shamefast, shameful, sharp, sore,
      sorrowed, sorrowful, sorrowing, sorry, tearful, touching,
      uncomfortable, unhappy about, wistful, woebegone, woeful,
      wretched