rue the day
rue the day verb: to seriously regret one's actions.
Verb
rue the day (third-person singular simple present rues the day, present participle ruing the day, simple past and past participle rued the day)
- To seriously regret one's actions.
- I: I think there may be something living in there. I think there may be something alive.
Withnail: What d'you mean? A rat?
I: It's possible. It's possible.
Withnail: Then the fucker will rue the day!1987, Bruce Robinson, Withnail and I - As far as they were concerned, he must be ruing the day he ever met Sally.2009, Erica James, It's The Little Things
- I: I think there may be something living in there. I think there may be something alive.
Forms of rue the day
| third-person singular present | rues the day |
|---|---|
| present participle | ruing the day |
| past participle | rued the day |
| past | rued the day |
Questions about rue the day
- What does rue the day mean?
- Rue the day means to seriously regret one's actions.
- What part of speech is rue the day?
- Rue the day is a verb.
- What is the past tense of rue the day?
- The past tense of rue the day is rued the day.
Words near rue the day in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rue the day (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-rue the day.ogg.
Cite this entry: “rue the day.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rue_the_day. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.