Calmly he looked on either life, and here Saw nothing
to regret, or there to fear. --Pope.
In a few hours they [the Israelites] began to regret
their slavery, and to murmur against their leader.
--Macaulay.
Recruits who regretted the plow from which they had
been violently taken. --Macaulay.
What man does not remember with regret the first
time he read Robinson Crusoe? --Macaulay.
Never any prince expressed a more lively regret for
the loss of a servant. --Clarendon.
From its peaceful bosom [the grave] spring none but
fond regrets and tender recollections. --W. Irving.
2. Dislike; aversion. [Obs.] --Dr. H. More.
Syn: Grief; concern; sorrow; lamentation; repentance;
penitence; self-condemnation.
Usage: {Regret}, {Remorse}, {Compunction}, {Contrition},
{Repentance}. Regret does not carry with it the energy
of remorse, the sting of compunction, the sacredness
of contrition, or the practical character of
repentance. We even apply the term regret to
circumstance over which we have had no control, as the
absence of friends or their loss. When connected with
ourselves, it relates rather to unwise acts than to
wrong or sinful ones. --C. J. Smith.