单词 | rueful |
释义 | rueful (once / 1433 pages) adj If your elaborate magic trick goes awry, and instead of pulling a rabbit out of an audience member's shoe, you set the shoe on fire, you might give a rueful smile. Rueful means apologetic or remorseful. The adjective rueful sincerely expresses regret, but it manages to do it with a hint of humor. Rueful shows up a lot in descriptions of remorseful grins or apologetic smiles. If you're sorry about something you've done but you can still laugh at yourself a little bit, you feel rueful. The word itself comes from the verb to rue, which means "to regret." WORD FAMILYrueful: ruefulest, ruefully, ruefulness+/rue: rued, rueful, rueing, rues, ruing/ruefulness: ruefulnesses USAGE EXAMPLESVladimir Putin is definitely not rueful or bemused about these possessions. The Guardian(Dec 23, 2016) But there are some gems in it, along with some rueful reflection. Seattle Times(Dec 15, 2016) Then he added a rueful note, "I'm just not good at this." Los Angeles Times(Dec 12, 2016) adj feeling or expressing pain or sorrow for sins or offenses Syn contrite, remorseful, ruthful penitent, repentant feeling or expressing remorse for misdeeds |
随便看 |
|
英语词典包含147318条英英释义在线翻译词条,基本涵盖了全部常用单词的英英翻译及用法,是英语学习的有利工具。