ruth
see also: Ruth
Pronunciation Noun

ruth (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Sorrow for the misery of another; pity, compassion; mercy. [from 13th c.]
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 11, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
      It was my fortune to be at Rome, upon a day that one Catena, a notorious high-way theefe, was executed: at his strangling no man of the companie seemed to be mooved to any ruth […].
    • 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Chapter IV, 1859, New York, Harper & Brothers, page 14 ↗:
      under her light eyebrows glimmered an eye devoid of ruth […].
    • 2011, Turisas (Mathias Nygård), Hunting Pirates ↗
      Scum they are! —Foe of mankind!
      Clear the sea! —Show no ruth!
  2. (now rare) Repentance; regret; remorse. [from 13th c.]
    • 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XLIV, 2005, The Works of A. E. Housman [1994, The Collected Poems of A. E. Housman], page 61 ↗,
      Now to your grave shall friend and stranger / With ruth and some with envy come […].
    • ~1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Fall of Arthur
      He mourned too late
      In ruth for the rending of the Round Table.
  3. (obsolete) Sorrow; misery; distress. [13th-19th c.]
  4. (obsolete) Something which causes regret or sorrow; a pitiful sight. [13th-17th c.]
Translations Translations Translations
Ruth
Pronunciation Proper noun
  1. A book of the Old Testament and the Hebrew Tanakh.
    Synonyms: Rth.
  2. Ruth, the resident of Moab around whom the text centers.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Ruth 1:16 ↗:
      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.
  3. A female given name.
    • 1945 Agatha Christie, Sparkling Cyanide, HarperCollins (2010), ISBN 978-0-00-735470-2, page 30:
      Her face hardened.
      "I despise pity."
      "In spite of your name? Ruth is your name, isn't it? Piquant that. Ruth the ruthless."
    • 1982 Anne Tyler, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Fawcett Columbine, 1996, ISBN 0449911594, page 134
      He pictured the woman as dark and Biblical, because of her name: Ruth. Shadowed eyes and creamy skin. Torrents of loose black hair.
  4. CDP in White Pine County, Nevada.
  5. CDP in Trinity County, California.
Translations
  • French: livre de Ruth
  • German: Ruth, Buch Rut
  • Italian: Rut
  • Portuguese: Rute
  • Russian: Кни́га Руфь
  • Spanish: Rut
Translations


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