ruefullyadv.

c1225 (?c1200) St. Margaret (Bodl.) (1934) 8 (MED) Leuestu & luuest te þe reufulliche deide & reuliche on rode?

a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 1825 (MED) Sin þai ware ded sua reufulli [Gött. reufuli], þe saulus he wald haf of merci.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xii. 48 (MED) Rosamounde, riȝt so, reufully bysette Þe bewte of hir body; in badnesse she dispended.

a1450 York Plays (1885) 425 (MED) To see þis ferly foode Þus ruffully dight, Rugged and rente on a roode, Þis is a rewfull sight.

c1480 (a1400) St. Alexis 414 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 453 Ful rewfully hyme demanyt he.

?a1525 (c1450) Christ's Burial & Resurrection i. l. 71 in F. J. Furnivall Digby Plays (1896) 174 How rewfully he hinges here, That set you first in ceile!

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. UUUi^v Se there the son of god so rufully and pytuously deformed and arayd for thy saluacion.

1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 199 All the wounded body..rots and consumes most rufully.

1705 N. Rowe Biter i. 10 The Lover is ruefully beaten for the Close of his Adventure.

1773 D. Barrington tr. Ælfred the Great Anglo-Saxon Version v. ii.180 Being ruefully bound, he continued on the same spot before the gate, till he at last perished.

1839 Old Humphrey's Observ. 197 Most of the carmen and wagoners have thrown bags across their shoulders, while the manes and tails of their horses are ruefully ruffled by the sudden gusts which toss them to and fro.

1860 Woodcroft, & its Elder Daughters xviii. 194 The stately Acacia tree on the lawn looked as straggled and miserable as a gay lady in a thunderstorm, its perfumed flowers hanging ruefully down, and its long pensile branches trailing helplessly on the wet grass.

1868 R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies 1st Ser. 282 Ah ! now from those hands and feet so lovely, streams the blood so ruefully.

1957 I. A. Richards in Internal Colloquies (1972) 106 Walled up, walled in, the maiden doom The King, her father, dares not kill; Ruefully subject to his will.

a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) 471 He..remeð reufulike on his wise, Hopeð he sal ðurȝ helpe risen.

c1400 (?c1380) Pearl 1181 (MED) Rewfully þenne I con to reme.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xvii. 235 So wole þe fader forȝif folke..Þat reufulliche [v.r. rufulliche] repenten.

c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 2843 (MED) He rewfully wepid, His eldirs & his ancestris als he remembris.

a1500 (?a1400) Morte Arthur (1903) 3423 (MED) To the kynge spake he full styll, Rewffully as he myght than Rowne.

1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure (1845) xiv. 54 Of the fall of prynces..He did endyte.., Folowynge his auctoure Bocas rufully.

1581 R. Mulcaster Positions iii. 14 She would oftimes be brought into a miserable plighte, and looke rufully vpon it.

1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale ix. 476 The sweete boy, wailinge most rufullie his frendes distroie.

1657 T. Reeve God's Plea for Nineveh 4 Would it not grieve thee..that they should cry rufully in a sad desolation, which have cryed mightily unto their God?

1756 Hist. Chron. Nov. 605/2 Lamenting our losses, and ruefully bemoaning our own national disgrace.

1778 G. L. Way Learning at Loss II. 98 Popp'd forth a Face the most ruefully ridiculous I ever beheld.

1809 W. Irving Hist. N.Y. II. vii. vi. 217 It was a piteous sight to behold the late valiant Burgomasters..peeping ruefully out of their nests.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. i. 5 He..ruefully wrote off refusals to..all his entertainers.

1888 F. Hume Madame Midas i. ii. 27 Slivers looked ruefully at the bottle.

1920 Amer. Woman Aug. 4/3 ‘Merciful God! but you're a tartar, miss!’ said the sheriff, ruefully. ‘Well, if she ain't clawed the blood clean through my skin!’

1971 P. Berton Last Spike v. ii. 200 Munro ruefully recalled his first payday when, through an error in the payroll department, the Chinese workers received one cent less per hour than had been agreed upon.

2008 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 6 Nov. 73/3 My father, for his part, might have been ruefully baffled to be set down as a Mason, when the nearest he came to apron-wearing was to be an occasional guest, with his non-Communist wife, at a Masonic dinner-dance.