REGRET • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Regret

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/rəgrˈɛt/ /rɪgrˈɛt/ Listen

verb

Regret v. t. (past & past part. regretted; pres. part. regretting) 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); as, to regret an error; to regret lost opportunities or friends. "Calmly he looked on either life, and here Saw nothing to regret, or there to fear." "In a few hours they (the Israelites) began to regret their slavery, and to murmur against their leader." "Recruits who regretted the plow from which they had been violently taken."

noun

Regret n.

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. "A passionate regret at sin." "What man does not remember with regret the first time he read Robinson Crusoe?" "Never any prince expressed a more lively regret for the loss of a servant." "From its peaceful bosom (the grave) spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections."

Dislike; aversion. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Grief; concern; sorrow; lamentation; repentance; penitence; self-condemnation. Regret, Remorse, Compunction, Contrition, Repentance. Regret does not carry with it the energy of remorse, the sting of compunction, the sacredness of contrition, or the practical character of repentance. We even apply the term regret to circumstance over which we have had no control, as the absence of friends or their loss. When connected with ourselves, it relates rather to unwise acts than to wrong or sinful ones.

See images of 'Regret'

Etymology of 'Regret'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Regret" Quotes from Famous Books

... mutiny. For sixteen years, all told, this gallant soldier of Wolfe's army had administered the country he helped to conquer, and no Governor before or since has earned a more deserving fame. Quebec and Montreal strove to outdo each other in the protestations of loyalty and regret marking their valedictory addresses. On the 9th of July, 1796, the frigate Active embarked the veteran Governor, and sailed for England. The vessel was wrecked, however, off the island of Anticosti, fortunately without ...

— Old Quebec - The Fortress of New France • Sir Gilbert Parker and Claude Glennon Bryan

... being in sight of the land of Cape Van Diemen, and having sent our letters on board the Dick for conveyance to England, we parted company by an interchange of three cheers; and it was not without a considerable degree of regret that we took this leave of our friends; for it is but due to Mr. Harrison to say that we received very great assistance from him on several occasions: he offered us his stream anchor to replace in some degree our loss, ...

— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... the Memoirs of Anna Jameson, the Italian Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mr. G.S. Hillard's Six Months in Italy (1853), and the Lives and Correspondence of Macready, Miss Mitford, Leigh Hunt, and Walter Savage Landor. I regret that the imperative need of concision has prevented the insertion of many of the letters, anecdotes, and reminiscences, so generously placed at my disposal; but possibly I may have succeeded in educing from them some essential ...

— Life of Robert Browning • William Sharp

... regret. I should do just the same again. But don't let us waste our time talking about vocations. I hear enough of that here. I want you to tell me about the ...

— The Lake • George Moore

... poverty's grip, spite o' all at tha's got. But dooant help another i' hooaps at some day. Tha'll get it all back.—Nay, a thaasand times Nay! Be generous an just and wi th' futer ne'er bother;— Tha'll nivver regret bein a friend ...

— Yorkshire Lyrics • John Hartley

More quotes...