What's the difference between distraught and rueful?

Distraught


Definition:

  • (p. p.) of Distract
  • (a.) Torn asunder; separated.
  • (a.) Distracted; perplexed.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Their families are said be be distraught at the news and have been clinging to the hope their daughters would want to come home.
  • (2) They’re all really distraught because this is another new year for them on Nauru,” she said.
  • (3) Following the statement, distraught relatives of Chinese passengers attacked Malaysia for announcing the crash and loss of life without direct proof, and for wasting the best chance to rescue those on board.
  • (4) Aware of the likely sensitivity around the issue, programme-makers had already made last-minute cuts to the New Year's Eve episode, including shots of a distraught Ronnie touching the cold hand of her dead baby, and Kat in blood-soaked pyjamas after her husband finds her haemorrhaging in her bed.
  • (5) He’s still distraught at not getting in to Old Trafford.
  • (6) And even though she was visibly distraught after the verdict was read out she feels that it wasn't going to be any other way.
  • (7) Distraught, I brought it into the office on Monday to gauge the opinions of my fashion colleagues.
  • (8) David Miliband was leaning hard towards quitting two days ago – "too distraught, too disappointed" said one ally – but if he had any doubts they were settled by the spat over the Iraq war he had with Harriet Harman , picked up by the TV cameras, during his brother's keynote speech to conference as leader on Tuesday.
  • (9) The Duchess was left distraught and broke down sobbing during the proceedings.
  • (10) The way everyone was distraught at the final whistle, meant this game was always going to be like this.
  • (11) She added, they are "scared and distraught, can't believe it's true, don't want it to be true".
  • (12) Those who want to say something about the atrocities in the Middle East may indeed be genuinely distraught, they may feel that the need to pass on this visual information places them on some unquestionable moral high ground.
  • (13) An elderly woman, distraught over the recent death of her husband, was found dead of an apparent suicide.
  • (14) Earlier in the day, Anthony Little, the brother-in-law of the uspect, emerged from the house and told NBC4 the family were "distraught".
  • (15) Aaron Campbell was at his girlfriend’s flat and was said to be distraught over the death of his brother, whom he had nursed before he succumbed to heart disease and kidney failure.
  • (16) Sitting with the child and parents in my office and seeing how distraught they all were was heartbreaking.
  • (17) At one point, he became so distraught that Judge Brian Keith interrupted proceedings to tell Adoboli that he shouldn't be embarrassed about becoming overrun by his emotions, and that it gave the jury a chance to "see the man behind the name".
  • (18) The action was described by Miss F as having left her mother, who had no involvement in the disagreement, "totally distraught" in the last weeks of her life.
  • (19) He is able to speak but obviously he’s absolutely distraught – he’s absolutely broken.
  • (20) Distraught and weeping, she was surrounded by reporters and cameramen.

Rueful


Definition:

  • (a.) Causing one to rue or lament; woeful; mournful; sorrowful.
  • (a.) Expressing sorrow.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There was always a rueful melancholy, stiffened by irony and leavened by humour about him.
  • (2) All subcultures have their references, which for insiders carry a complex set of feelings: the comfort of belonging and shutting out outsiders, mixed with a rueful, ironic self-awareness.
  • (3) She was characterised by her very specific sense of failure, which was rueful but nonchalant at the same time: Pearson's iconic image had Kate Reddy smashing up shop-bought mince pies to make them look as though she'd made them herself.
  • (4) Seven Oscar failures was a rueful glory he shared for a while with his old pal, Richard Burton.
  • (5) Yet as news filtered through from White Hart Lane that Gareth Bale had finally scored for Tottenham, Wenger - who offered Jack Wilshere a late cameo -looked rueful when Walcott's shot rebounded benignly off a post and relieved as Olivier Giroud made a surprisingly effective tackle to deny Ben Arfa.
  • (6) "You never say never to a warrior like him," said a rueful colleague, but against a lacklustre mayor and unpopular government, a heavy hitter with less baggage might have done better.
  • (7) Garde looked rueful but resigned, though the FA Cup is not the biggest battle last year’s runners-up face this season, and everyone seemed to know it.
  • (8) To be honest I feel rather self-conscious about my size,” Tshabalala told me with a rueful smile.
  • (9) It's a rueful acknowledgement of human frailty and opposition talent - eg.
  • (10) It is his film in disguise, the one that got away; a rueful critique of an oppressive regime and a heartfelt salute to the creative impulse that will not be quashed.
  • (11) Grimes took the stage for her concession speech with a rueful look and as much emotion as she showed on the campaign trail, thanking her family, the other Democratic politicians who stumped for her, her staff and her supporters.
  • (12) In the first chapter of Pride and Prejudice , his joke about his wife not accompanying his daughters to meet Mr Bingley lest he "like you the best of the party" has a hint of ruefulness.
  • (13) Written by Tim Firth and directed by Daniel Evans, it’s a rueful, magical look at the pleasures and perils of family life.
  • (14) You have to get out there and earn it and that’s what I’m trying to do.” On a rueful note, she added: “If I had to do it again, I would have used a separate email account.
  • (15) And here is the twist: in the last of the conventionally numbered chapters we find out that our hero (brave, rueful, suffering) is not the man we thought he was.
  • (16) He gave a rueful smile and replied: “I think enjoy is the wrong word.
  • (17) "Nobody knew about The Artist until it appeared in Cannes," he recalls, with a reflex ruefulness.
  • (18) At another point there is the rueful admission: “But perhaps I am now too dangerous to associate with!” Mostly it is more tiresome than dangerous.
  • (19) Some people who know the work will go, ‘hang on’, but generally speaking it’s the same people doing fairly much the same stuff.” The rueful smile again.
  • (20) Each team retained its pride and the visitors can be content with a stalemate on hostile terrain but Sir Alex Ferguson may be rueful that Chelsea have eased four points clear of them.