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disheartened

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,693 of 15,258neutral

Disheartened means losing the will to carry on trying. Disheartened by the result, deeply disheartened, disheartened but not beaten.

It is about the will rather than the mood — a disheartened team can still be angry, and what has gone is the belief that effort will pay. The heart in it is the old seat of courage, which is where take heart comes from too.

Definitions of disheartened

  1. 1adjectivedisheartenedLosing the will to carry on trying.C1

    “After the fifth rejection letter, she felt disheartened and nearly gave up writing.”

disheartened is a state of discouragement.

Where it comes from

Dis- plus hearten, from heart in its old sense as the seat of courage. Take heart and lose heart use the same idea.

From the verb hearten.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Moods & Relationships

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disheartened in the wild

  • A disheartened Bill then leaves civilization to rejoin the coyotes, who start howling at the Moon in honor of Bill's sorrow for Sue.

    Pecos Bill

  • The local community was disheartened to learn that The Amazon and Tiger pub was officially closed down in 2021.

    Harvel

  • Unfortunately, the TV series had to move to New York City in 1955, leaving Cliffy the clown both disheartened and unemployed.

    Cliffy the Clown

  • I came out of the studio exhausted, disheartened, embarrassed.

    Graeme Duffin

  • In July 2014 the Secretary Angelo Sandri has been disheartened by a part of the National Council and the President Anna Ciammetti was named commissioner of the party.

    Christian Democracy (Italy, 2004)

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.