Syn. -- 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. C. J. Smith.
Re*gret", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Regretted (-td); p. pr. & vb. n.
Regretting.] [F. regretter, OF. regreter; L. pref. re- re- + a word of
Teutonic origin; cf. Goth. grtan to weep, Icel. grta. See Greet to
lament.] 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.
Pope.
In a few hours they [the Israelites] began to regret their slavery,
and to murmur against their leader.
Macaulay.
Recruits who regretted the plow from which they had been violently
taken.
Macaulay.
Re*gret"ful (-f?l), a. Full of regret; indulging in regrets; repining.
-- Re*gret"ful*ly, adv.
Re*grow" (r?*gr?"), v. i. & t. To grow again.