Word.ws English Dictionary

ruing the day

ruing the day is the present participle and gerund of rue the day.

Meaning of rue the day

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)

  1. (idiomatic) 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

Questions about ruing the day

What is ruing the day the present participle and gerund of?
Ruing the day is the present participle and gerund of rue the day.

Words near ruing the day in the dictionary

  1. ruiner
  2. ruiners
  3. ruinest
  4. ruineth
  5. ruing
  6. ruing the day
  7. ruiniform
  8. ruinin'
  9. ruining
  10. ruinings
  11. ruinism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ruing the day (page history and authors); 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.

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