disheartening
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Causing someone to lose determination, hope, or confidence; discouraging: The word "disheartening" describes something that has the effect of making a person feel less hopeful or enthusiastic, often leading to a loss of morale or self-reliance.
Usage
- "Disheartening" is used to describe situations, news, events, or outcomes that are deeply disappointing and undermine one's spirit or resolve.
- It typically functions as an attributive adjective (e.g., ) or a predicative adjective (e.g., ).
Examples
- Adjective:
- The team's disheartening loss in the final minutes of the game left the fans in silence.
- It is disheartening to see so much effort yield so little progress.
- She received disheartening feedback on her initial proposal.
Advanced Usage
- "to find something disheartening": To experience something as discouraging.
- Many young artists find the competitive nature of the industry disheartening.
- Intensifiers: Often used with adverbs like "deeply," "truly," or "profoundly" to emphasize the degree of discouragement.
- The lack of public support was profoundly disheartening for the volunteers.
Variants and Related Words
- Dishearten (verb): To cause someone to lose determination or hope; to discourage.
- The constant rejections did not dishearten her; she continued to apply for jobs.
- Disheartened (adjective): Describing the state of feeling discouraged or having lost hope.
- The disheartened candidate considered withdrawing from the race.
- Disheartenment (noun): The feeling or state of being disheartened.
- A sense of disheartenment spread through the community after the project was canceled.
Synonyms
- Discouraging: Causing someone to lose confidence or enthusiasm.
- Dispiriting: Causing someone to lose enthusiasm or hope; making someone dejected.
- Demoralizing: Causing someone to lose confidence or hope; undermining morale.
Antonyms
- Encouraging: Giving someone support, confidence, or hope.
- Heartening: Making someone feel cheerful or encouraged.
- Uplifting: Morally or spiritually elevating; inspiring happiness or hope.
Related Phrases and Idioms
- A disheartening sight/sound/experience: A common collocation describing something perceived as discouraging.
- The empty concert hall was a disheartening sight for the performer.
- Nothing is more disheartening than...: A phrase used to emphasize a particularly discouraging circumstance.
- For a teacher, nothing is more disheartening than seeing a student give up.
Adjective
- destructive of morale and self-reliance