dismay
to break down the courage of completely, as by sudden danger or trouble; dishearten thoroughly; daunt: The surprise attack dismayed the enemy.
to surprise in such a manner as to disillusion: She was dismayed to learn of their disloyalty.
to alarm; perturb: The new law dismayed some of the more conservative politicians.
sudden or complete loss of courage; utter disheartenment.
sudden disillusionment.
agitation of mind; perturbation; alarm.
Origin of dismay
1synonym study For dismay
Other words for dismay
Opposites for dismay
Other words from dismay
- dis·may·ing·ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use dismay in a sentence
It was dismaying, then, to find that I was too light in comparison to men who were then on the team to be taken seriously.
How His West Point Football Experience Inspired Eisenhower | Nicolaus Mills | November 11, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI can't remember any previous Cabinet appointee who handed in so dismaying a performance under senatorial questioning.
Keohane said she found the decline in high-profile women leadership since 2000 to be "dismaying."
Instead she presents a historical record at once dismaying and encouraging.
This danger Garnache, however, was no less quick to perceive, and with a dismaying promptness did he take his measures.
St. Martin's Summer | Rafael Sabatini
Into the half-year she has put a flattering success and a dismaying failure.
Pharaoh's Broker | Ellsworth DouglassThis might be so; but yet, how dismaying and hopeless to him the idea of carrying them into effect!
Ten Thousand a-Year (Vol. 2) | Samuel WarrenThe boys wheeled abruptly, only to hear right in front of them a dismaying chorus of ghostly noises.
The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat | Janet AldridgeWe all returned quite late in the evening, and the report of nothing killed was somewhat dismaying.
Memoirs of Orange Jacobs | Orange Jacobs
British Dictionary definitions for dismay
/ (dɪsˈmeɪ) /
to fill with apprehension or alarm
to fill with depression or discouragement
consternation or agitation
Origin of dismay
1Derived forms of dismay
- dismaying, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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