(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.