rues

Noun (1)

rue (uncountable)

1. (archaic, dialectal) Sorrow; repentance; regret.
   • When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, / "The heart out of the bosom was never given in vain; / 'Tis paid with sighs aplenty and sold for endless rue." / And I am two-and-twenty, and oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XIII”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 21

   Synonyms:

   contrition, misery, unhappiness, blueness, tristesse, mirthless, blues, crestfallenness, dejection, depression

2. (archaic, dialectal) Pity; compassion.

   Synonyms:

   ruth, sympathy, bowels, commiseration, compassion, empathy, fellow feeling, mercy, pity, remorse

Noun (2)

rue (countable and uncountable, plural rues)

1. Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines.
   • But th'aged Nourse, her calling to her bowre, / Had gathered Rew, and Savine, and the flowre / Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

See all 9 meanings of rue