ruth

plural ruths

1. archaiccountableuncountableSorrow for the misery of another person; compassion, mercy, pity.First known use 13th c.

   Look homevvard Angel novv, and melt vvith ruth. / And, O ye Dolphin, vvaft the haples youth.

   1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 64

   5 more examples

   The dead mans corps hath made ſome Serpents weépe, / Such rewth may ryſe in beaſts of bloudy race: / And yet can man (which bragges aboue the reſt) / Uſe wracke [vengeance] for rewth? can murder like him beſt?

   1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “The Hare, to the Hunter”, in George Gascoigne, transl., The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting. […], London: […] Thomas Purfoot, published 1611, →OCLC, page 177

   It vvas my fortune to be at Rome, vpon a day that one Catena, a notorious high-vvay thief, vvas executed: at his ſtrangling no man of the company ſeemed to be mooved to any ruth; but vvhen he came to be quartered, the Executioner gave no blovve that vvas not accompanied vvith a pitteous voyce, and heartie exclamation, as if every man had had a feeling ſympathie, or lent his ſenſes to the poore mangled vvretch.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Crueltie”, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC, page 249

   [O]ft they ſnatch the Pen, / As if inſpir'd, and in a Theſpian Rage; / Then vvrite, and blot, as vvould your Ruth engage.

   1748, James Thomson, “Canto I”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza LII, page 27

   For if my deſultory ſtrain vvith ruth / And indignation make thine eyes o'erflovv, / Alas! vvhat comfort could thy anguiſh ſooth, / Shouldſt thou th'extent of human folly knovv.

   1774, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the Second, London: […] Edward and Charles Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: William Creech, […], →OCLC, stanza XXX, page 16

   And he, that Ancient Man, whose sight / Has long been quenched by age's night, / Upon whose wrinkled brow alone, / Nor ruth, nor mercy's trace is shown, […]

   1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Canto Second. The Convent.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, stanza XIX, page 98

   Synonyms: commiseration, rue, bowels, commiseration, compassion, empathy, fellow feeling, mercy · Antonyms: unruth

2. archaiccountableuncountableRegret, remorse, repentance.First known use 13th c.

   I seek these anchorites, not in ruth, / To curse and to deny your truth; […]

   1855 April, Matthew Arnold, “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse”, in New Poems, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1867, →OCLC, page 212

   3 more examples

   But, what afflicts my peace with keenest ruth, / Is, that I have my inner self abused, / Forgone the home delight of constant truth, / And clear and open soul, so prized in fearless youth.

   1798, [William Wordsworth], “The Female Vagrant”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], →OCLC, page 83

   Now to your grave shall friend and stranger / With ruth and some with envy come: […]

   1896, A[lfred] E[dward] Housman, “[Poem] XLIV”, in A Shropshire Lad, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, The Bodley Head, published 1906, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 68

   Then rage left him, || and his wrath sickened, / his mood faltered. || He mourned too late / in ruth for the rending || of the Round Table.

   c. 1937 (date written), J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “[Canto] III: Of Sir Lancelot, who Abode in Benwick”, in Christopher Tolkien, editor, The Fall of Arthur, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2013, →ISBN, page 38, lines 87–89

   Synonyms: contrition, agenbite, remorse, rue, compunction, contrition, guilt, penitence

3. obsoleteuncountableMatter for regret or sorrow; calamity, ruin; also, occasion for regret or sorrow; (countable) an instance of this; a disaster, a pitiful thing.First known use 13th–17th c.

   Svveet adieu, Ile keepe my oath, / Patiently to beare my vvroath.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ix], signature E2, recto

   5 more examples

   They ſay it is a ruth to ſee thy louer neede, / But you can ſee me vveepe, but you can ſee me bleede: / And neuer ſhrinke nor ſhame, ne ſhed no teare at all, / You make my vvounds your ſelfe, and fill them vp vvith gall: […]

   1589, attributed to George Puttenham, “Of Figures Sententious, otherwise Called Rhetoricall”, in The Arte of English Poesie. […], London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, 3rd booke (Of Ornament), pages 182–183

   Ah deareſt God (quoth he) that is great vvoe, / And vvondrous ruth to all, that ſhall it heare.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 463

   Yet novv I doe repent me of his ruth, / And vviſh that I had neuer vvronged him ſo: […]

   1594, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nash[e], The Tragedie of Dido Queene of Carthage: […], London: […] Widdowe Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke, […], →OCLC, Act III, signature D2, recto

   Ecce Homo [behold the man, i.e., Jesus], ſaith, [Pontius] Pilate firſt, A man he is, as vve are: And vvere he but a man; nay, vvere he not a man, but ſome poore dumb creature, it vvere great ruth to ſee him ſo handled, as he vvas.

   1604 April 15 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), Lancelot Andrewes, “[Sermons Preached vpon Good-Friday.] A Sermon Preached before the King’s Maiestie, at Whitehall, on the VI. of Aprill, A.D. MDCIIII, Being Good-Friday.”, in XCVI. Sermons […], London: […] George Miller, for Richard Badger, published 1629, →OCLC, page 356

   Come Nouice, come, ſee here the fall of youth, / Begun in pleaſure, but vvouen vp in rueth: […]

   1615, Richarde Brathwaite [i.e., Richard Braithwait], “The Authors Morall to His Ciuell Diuell”, in A Strappado for the Diuell. […], London: […] I. B[eale] for Richard Redmer […], →OCLC, page 48

   Synonyms: hardship, sorrow, affliction, aggrievance, distress, grief, grievance, hardship

4. obsoleteuncountableDistress, misery, sorrow.First known use 13th–19th c.

   Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, / In thy heart the dew of youth, / On thy lips the smile of truth.

   1841 (date written), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Miscellaneous.] Maidenhood.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1842, →OCLC, stanza 14, page 128

   2 more examples

   High on a hill a goodly Cedar grevve, / Of vvondrous length, and ſtreight proportion, / […] / Shortly vvithin her inmoſt pith there bred / A little vvicked vvorme, perceiu'd of none, / That on her ſap and vitall moyſture fed: / Thenceforth her garland ſo much honoured / Began to die, (O great ruth for the ſame) / And her faire lockes fell from her loftie head, / That ſhortly balde, and bared ſhe became.

   1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Visions of the Worlds Vanitie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC, stanza 7, signature [B4], verso

   Here lyes to each her parents ruth, / Mary, the daughter of their youth: / Yet, all heauens gifts, being heauens due, / It makes the father, leſſe, to rue.

   1616, Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epigrammes. [XXII. On My First Daughter.]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, →OCLC, page 774

   Synonyms: dejection, unhappiness, blueness, tristesse, mirthlessness, blues, crestfallenness, dejection

1. biblicalA book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.

   Synonyms: Rth.

2. biblicalThe resident of Moab around whom the text centers.

   And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ruth 1:16

3. A female given name from Hebrew.

   Her face hardened. "I despise pity." "In spite of your name? Ruth is your name, isn't it? Piquant that. Ruth the ruthless."

   1945, Agatha Christie, Sparkling Cyanide, HarperCollins, published 2010, →ISBN, page 30

   1 more example

   He pictured the woman as dark and Biblical, because of her name: Ruth. Shadowed eyes and creamy skin. Torrents of loose black hair.

   1982, Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Fawcett Columbine, published 1996, →ISBN, page 134

4. A census-designated place in White Pine County, Nevada, United States.
5. A census-designated place in Trinity County, California, United States.