regrettable, a.
(rɪˈgrɛtəb(ə)l)
Also 7 regreet-, regreat-, 9 regretable.
[a. F. regrettable, † regretable: see regret v. and -able.]
Deserving of, calling for, regret: a. of occurrences, actions, facts, etc. (Common in recent use.)
| 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. ix. 586, I have seene some..hate their health because it was not regreetable. a 1693 Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xlviii. 389 The loss of Osyris was not so regreatable in Isis. 1832 Carlyle Misc. (1857) III. 52 The fact of their existence is not the less certain and regretable. 1867 Visct. Strangford Selection (1869) I. 118 It is, therefore, all the more regrettable to come upon the traces of their vitality in French opinion. 1889 Times 31 Aug. 5/1 These raids are very regrettable. |
b. of what is lost or no longer exists. rare.
| 1835 Tait's Mag. II. 454 The custom, we suspect, was one of the few regrettable observances of the feudal era. 1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue (1873) §33 Our loss of this most regrettable old pronoun [man]. |
Hence reˈgrettably adv.; reˈgrettableness.
| 1866 Pall Mall G. No. 379. 1349/2 As regrettably obvious as ever. 1896 Naturalist 50 The writer's correspondence with him (regrettably, yet naturally)..ceased. 1913 Eng. Hist. Rev. July 555 The regrettableness of the lapses from what might have been. |