regret Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment
    sorrow; ruefulness; rue.
    • he drank to drown his sorrows
    • he wrote a note expressing his regret
    • to his rue, the error cost him the game
  2. verb feel remorse for; feel sorry for; be contrite about
    repent; rue.
  3. verb feel sad about the loss or absence of
  4. verb decline formally or politely
    • I regret I can't come to the party
  5. verb express with regret
    • I regret to say that you did not gain admission to Harvard

WordNet

Re*gret" noun
Etymology
F., fr. regretter. See Regret,
Definitions
  1. 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." Dr. H. More.
    What man does not remember with regret the first time he read Robinson Crusoe? Macaulay.
    Never any prince expressed a more lively regret for the loss of a servant. Clarendon.
    From its peaceful bosom [the grave] spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. W. Irving.
  2. Dislike; aversion. Obs. Dr. H. More. 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" transitive verb
Etymology
F. regretter, OF. regreter; L. pref. re- re- + a word of Teutonic origin; cf. Goth. grtan to weep, Icel. grta. See Greet to lament.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Regretted present participle & verbal noun Regretting
Definitions
  1. 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.

Webster 1913