" rueful "

1: expressing or suggesting mourning;

  * e.g., " ... the rueful faces of friends and family who had gathered to pay their last respects "

•  Synonyms : 

•  aching,

•  agonized,

•  anguished,

•  bemoaning,

•  bewailing,

•  bitter,

•  deploring,

•  doleful,

•  dolesome,

•  dolorous,

•  funeral,

•  grieving,

•  heartbroken,

•  lamentable,

•  lugubrious,

•  mournful,

•  plaintive,

•  plangent,

•  regretful,

•  sorrowful,

•  sorry,

•  wailing,

•  weeping,

•  woeful

•  Antonyms : 

•  impenitent,

•  remorseless,

•  unapologetic,

•  unrepentant

2: feeling sorrow for a wrong that one has done;

  * e.g., " ... a rueful youth who had come to ask for forgiveness for online bullying "

•  Synonyms : 

•  apologetic,

•  compunctious,

•  contrite,

•  penitent,

•  regretful,

•  remorseful,

•  repentant,

•  sorry

•  Antonyms : 

• (N/A)

3: deserving of one's pity;

  * e.g., " ... the rueful, desperate poverty of people in parts of the Third World "

•  Synonyms : 

•  heartbreaking,

•  heartrending,

•  miserable,

•  pathetic,

•  piteous,

•  pitiable,

•  pitiful,

•  poor,

•  sorry,

•  wretched

•  Antonyms : 

• (N/A)