ruthfully

Adverb

ruthfully (comparative more ruthfully, superlative most ruthfully)

1. Sorrowfully, ruefully.
   • cæsar [ruthfully] Rufio, Rufio: my men at the barricade are between the sea party and the shore party. I have murdered them.1898, [George] Bernard Shaw, “Cæsar and Cleopatra”, in Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple, Cæsar and Cleopatra, & Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, London: Grant Richards, […], published...
   • They tantalize, particularly when the speaker or the central character of the lyric is a prematurely married girl, ruthfully yearning to return to her parental home, and there, reunite with her childhood lover.1997, K. Ayyappapanicker, Sahitya Akademi staff, Medieval Indian Literature: An Anthology, page 232
2. In a manner that causes pity; piteously.
   • This commonplace observation becomes very poignant when you are the man accused, and a man like McCarthy ruthfully exploits his advantage by making the accusations so sensational that the revelation of the truth seems drab and dull by comparison.1997, Neil W. Hamilton (quoting Owen Lattimore), Zealotry and Academic Freedom, page 313
3. Compassionately; mercifully.
   • Lee's wait was ruthfully short, although he might have traded the first news that reached him for a return to uncertainty.1999, Joseph L. Harsh, Taken at the Flood: Robert E. Lee and Confederate Strategy in the Maryland Campaign of 1862, page 285