RUTH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Ruth mean? 

• RUTH (noun)
  The noun RUTH has 4 senses:

1. United States professional baseball player famous for hitting home runs (1895-1948)

2. the great-grandmother of king David whose story is told in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament

3. a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others

4. a book of the Old Testament that tells the story of Ruth who was not an Israelite but who married an Israelite and who stayed with her mother-in-law Naomi after her husband died

  Familiarity information: RUTH used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUTH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

United States professional baseball player famous for hitting home runs (1895-1948)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Babe Ruth; George Herman Ruth; Ruth; Sultan of Swat

Instance hypernyms:

ballplayer; baseball player (an athlete who plays baseball)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The great-grandmother of king David whose story is told in the Book of Ruth in the Old Testament

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

married woman; wife (a married woman; a man's partner in marriage)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

commiseration; pathos; pity; ruth

Context example:

the blind are too often objects of pity

Hypernyms ("ruth" is a kind of...):

fellow feeling; sympathy (sharing the feelings of others (especially feelings of sorrow or anguish))

Sense 4

Meaning:

A book of the Old Testament that tells the story of Ruth who was not an Israelite but who married an Israelite and who stayed with her mother-in-law Naomi after her husband died

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Book of Ruth; Ruth

Instance hypernyms:

book (a major division of a long written composition)

Holonyms ("Ruth" is a part of...):

Old Testament (the collection of books comprising the sacred scripture of the Hebrews and recording their history as the chosen people; the first half of the Christian Bible)

Hagiographa; Ketubim; Writings (the third of three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures)

 Context examples 

On another night, his vigil was rewarded by a glimpse of Ruth through a second-story window.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He is a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth for man, woman, or beast.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No ruth met my ruth.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Ruth seemed very near to him in that moment.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Methinks that I should have ruth upon you, seeing that I am myself like one who looks through a horn window while his neighbors have the clear crystal.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had left this woman in bitterness and hate, and I came back to her now with no other emotion than a sort of ruth for her great sufferings, and a strong yearning to forget and forgive all injuries—to be reconciled and clasp hands in amity.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The situation was obscured to Ruth.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They were stern days, and if the honest soldier, too poor for a ransom, had no prospect of mercy upon the battle-field, what ruth was there for sea robbers, the enemies of humankind, taken in the very deed, with proofs of their crimes still swinging upon their yard-arm.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mrs. Reed might be at that time some six or seven and thirty; she was a woman of robust frame, square-shouldered and strong-limbed, not tall, and, though stout, not obese: she had a somewhat large face, the under jaw being much developed and very solid; her brow was low, her chin large and prominent, mouth and nose sufficiently regular; under her light eyebrows glimmered an eye devoid of ruth; her skin was dark and opaque, her hair nearly flaxen; her constitution was sound as a bell—illness never came near her; she was an exact, clever manager; her household and tenantry were thoroughly under her control; her children only at times defied her authority and laughed it to scorn; she dressed well, and had a presence and port calculated to set off handsome attire.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was just such uniqueness of points of view that startled Ruth.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)