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Regret vs Pity - What's the difference?

regret | pity |

In obsolete terms the difference between regret and pity

is that regret is dislike; aversion while pity is piety.

As verbs the difference between regret and pity

is that regret is to feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead while pity is to feel pity for (someone or something).

As nouns the difference between regret and pity

is that regret is emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing while pity is a feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.

As an interjection pity is

short form of what a pity.

regret

English

(wikipedia regret)

Verb

(regrett)
  • To feel sorry about (a thing that has or has not happened), afterthink: to wish that a thing had not happened, that something else had happened instead.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Judge Short had gone to town, and Farrar was off for a three days' cruise up the lake. I was bitterly regretting I had not gone with him when the distant notes of a coach horn reached my ear, and I descried a four-in-hand winding its way up the inn road from the direction of Mohair.}}
  • (more generally) To feel sorry about (any thing).

    • Usage notes

    This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (the (-ing) form), except in set phrases with tell, say, and inform, where the to infinitive is used. See

    Derived terms

    * regretter

    Noun

  • Emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different; a looking back with dissatisfaction or with longing.
  • * Macaulay
    • What man does not remember with regret the first time he read Robinson Crusoe ?
  • * Clarendon
    • Never any prince expressed a more lively regret for the loss of a servant.
  • * Washington Irving
    • From its peaceful bosom [the grave] spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections.
  • (obsolete) Dislike; aversion.

    • See also

    * remorse * repentance

    External links

    * * ----

    pity

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pitty (obsolete)

    Noun

  • (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xix. 17
    • He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Hehas no more pity in him than a dog.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, p.5:
    • The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offendedis, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty .
  • (countable) Something regrettable.
    • It's a pity you're feeling unwell because there's a party on tonight.
  • * Laurence Sterne
    • It was a thousand pities .
  • * Addison
    • What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!
  • (obsolete) piety
    • (Wyclif)

    Synonyms

    * (mercy) ruth * (something regrettable) shame

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To feel pity for (someone or something).
  • * Bible, Psalms ciii. 13
    • Like as a father pitieth' his children, so the Lord ' pitieth them that fear him.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.11:
    • She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee; / That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.
  • * Book of Common Prayer
    • It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

    Interjection

  • Short form of what a pity.

    • Synonyms

    * shame, what a pity, what a shame

    Derived terms

    * piteous * pitiable * pitiful * self-pity * what a pity ----