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regret

ri-GRET/ɹɪˈɡɹɛt/

Verbregrets, regretting, regretted

Noun pluralregrets

7 meanings of regret

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To feel sorry about something that happened or failed to happen, wishing it had turned out otherwise.

    Many travelers regret not buying insurance before a long journey.

    He bitterly regretted the words the moment they left his mouth.

    Similarrue

    Note

    Behind the word is weeping. Middle English regretten comes from Old French regreter, 'to lament', which is built on a Frankish verb meaning 'to weep'. Today it takes a plain object (he regretted his words) or a whole clause, as in the American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897): 'I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him.' Bitterly is its natural intensifier, and rue is its closest synonym.

  2. 2
    nouncountable or uncountable
    Emotional pain over something done or experienced in the past, mixed with a wish that it had been different.

    A wave of regret swept over him when he saw the empty chair.

    She carried a quiet regret for the chances she never took.

    Similarremorse, repentance, contrition, penitence, compunction

    Note

    The noun holds two moods that its synonyms divide between them: remorse and repentance for what one did, and nostalgia for what one has lost. Used uncountably, it names a state, as in Macaulay's 'remember with regret'. Used countably, it names particular sorrows, often plural and softened, as in Washington Irving's 'fond regrets and tender recollections.'

  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To feel sorry about something, whether or not one played any part in it.

    We regret to inform you that the position has been filled.

    The airline regrets the inconvenience caused by the cancellation.

    Similarmourn, grieve, lament, sorrow, moan

    Note

    Here the sorrow carries no wish to undo one's own act. The sense widens the backward-looking sense to anything one is sorry about, including what one must do anyway: 'I regret that I have to do this, but I don't have a choice.' That is why it suits apologies and announcements, where sorrow is expressed without any admission of fault. Grieve and lament stand close by.

  4. 4
    nouncountable or uncountable
    An invited guest who has informed the organizer in advance of being unable to attend.

    The planner tallied the regrets before finalizing the seating chart.

    Every regret on the list meant one fewer plate to set.

  5. 5
    noununcountable
    The amount of avoidable loss that comes from choosing a worse option than the best one available.

    Analysts measured the regret of each strategy against the best possible outcome.

    A good policy keeps regret low even when the future is uncertain.

    Note

    Decision theorists split every loss in two: the part no choice could have avoided, and the regret, which is the extra loss due to ignorance of the true state. Herman Chernoff and Lincoln E. Moses's Elementary Decision Theory subtracts the unavoidable part to build a regret table. The minimax regret rule then picks the option whose worst-case regret is smallest.

Less common meanings

  1. 6
    verbarchaictransitive
    To feel the loss or absence of someone or something; to mourn what is gone.

    We regret the loved ones whom death has taken from us.

    He more than ever regretted his home, and with increased desire longed to see his family.
    1845, The Church of England Magazine
    Note

    This older use takes as its object what is gone, not what was done. The Church of England Magazine of 1845 writes, 'He more than ever regretted his home,' and Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped (1886) still uses the sense. A modern reader may hear blame where only longing is meant, so in present-day prose miss or mourn is the safer choice.

  2. 7
    nounobsoleteuncountable
    Dislike or aversion toward a person or thing.
    Is it a vertue to have some ineffective regrets to damnation, and such a Vertue too, as shall serve to ballance all our vices?
    1667, Richard Allestree, The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety
    Note

    An obsolete sense in which regret means aversion rather than sorrow. Richard Allestree's The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety (1667) speaks of 'ineffective regrets to damnation', a dislike of damnation that does nothing to avoid it. Notice the preposition to. Anyone reading older prose should test whether 'dislike' fits better than 'sorrow' before settling on a meaning.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English regretten, from Old French regreter ("to lament"), formed from the intensive prefix re- plus a Frankish root meaning "to weep, mourn." It traces back through Proto-Germanic to Proto-Indo-European roots for weeping and sadness, and is related to the word greet.