Rueful

In fact, it could be the kind of flop that folks around the blogosphere discuss in rueful tones. ❋ Unknown (2009)

With wry insight, he views the Steins ensconced in rueful domesticity. ❋ Unknown (2002)

Priscilla, in rueful remembrance of many trips to the dressmaker's. ❋ Unknown (1911)

(Obviously Shafer disagrees with Barthoff's conclusion that Villages embodies "a certain rueful but forgiving intelligence and, yes, wisdom about the accumulating passages, overt and hidden, of ordinary human existence," but that Walter Berthoff liked this novel while Shafer did not certainly seems an insufficient reason to call Berthoff dishonest. ❋ Unknown (2010)

His expression was rueful as he glanced down at me. ❋ CATHERINE HAPKA (2010)

When it was finally belching smoke to his satisfaction, he looked at me, and in his eye was what I can only describe as a rueful twinkle. ❋ King, Laurie R. (2006)

Lochte smiled, the kind of grin that some might call rueful, but for him it was just a chuckle.

And through it all he had the quick memory of his mother's companionship, he could recall her rueful looks whenever the eager inaccurate ways, in which he reflected certain ineradicable tendencies of her own, had lost him a school advantage; he could remember her exhortations, with the dash in them of humorous self-reproach which made them so stirring to the child's affection; and he could realise their old far-off life at Murewell, the joys and the worries of it, and see her now gossiping with the village folk, now wearing herself impetuously to death in their service, and now roaming with him over the Surrey heaths in search of all the dirty delectable things in which a boy-naturalist delights. ❋ Humphry Ward (1885)

And through it all he had the quiet, memory of his mother's companionship, he could recall her rueful looks whenever the eager inaccurate ways, in which he reflected certain ineradicable tendencies of her own, had lost him a school advantage; he could remember her exhortations, with the dash in them of humorous self-reproach which made them so stirring to the child's affection; and he could realize their old far-off life at Murewell, the joys and the worries of it, and see her now gossiping with the village folk, now wearing herself impetuously to death in their service, and now roaming with him over the Surrey heaths in search of all the dirty delectable things in which a boy-naturalist delights. ❋ Humphry Ward (1885)

I could tell by the look on his face - kind of rueful and thunderous - as he walked down the path that something had happened. ❋ Unknown (2005)

I examined it with a kind of rueful fondness, as you might regard an old photograph of yourself dressed in clothes that you cannot believe you ever thought were stylish. ❋ Bryson, Bill (1999)

With the war raging in Europe and threatening to involve the United States, this song seemed to typify the kind of rueful resignation that would soon envelop the world. ❋ Taraborrelli, J. R. (1997)

Alvin looked at Horace's face and was relieved to see that instead of annoyance, his eyes showed a kind of rueful gladness at hearing the name of Papa. ❋ Card, Orson Scott (1995)

As she struggled to her feet and rubbed her shoulders to relieve the pain, she did not thank the priest but smiled at him with a kind of rueful satisfaction. ❋ Michener, James (1992)

Watching their departure with a kind of rueful anger was Granville, one of the housing department's maintenance men, doing a job on a flat. ❋ Unknown (2010)

1.) [Rueful]!! That was hilarious. 2.) Man, [I'll bet] that guy in [TFC] is rueing the day he was born after what I did to him ❋ Anonymous (2003)