DEJECTION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dejection mean? 

• DEJECTION (noun)
  The noun DEJECTION has 2 senses:

1. a state of melancholy depression

2. solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels

  Familiarity information: DEJECTION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEJECTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A state of melancholy depression

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

depression (a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity)

Derivation:

deject (lower someone's spirits; make downhearted)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Solid excretory product evacuated from the bowels

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

BM; dejection; faecal matter; faeces; fecal matter; feces; ordure; stool

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

body waste; excrement; excreta; excretion; excretory product (waste matter (as urine or sweat but especially feces) discharged from the body)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dejection"):

dog do; dog shit; dog turd; doggy do (fecal droppings from a dog)

crap; dirt; poop; shit; shite; turd (obscene terms for feces)

droppings; dung; muck (fecal matter of animals)

meconium (thick dark green mucoid material that is the first feces of a newborn child)

melaena; melena (abnormally dark tarry feces containing blood (usually from gastrointestinal bleeding))

 Context examples 

As for the gentleman himself, his feelings were chiefly expressed, not by embarrassment or dejection, or by trying to avoid her, but by stiffness of manner and resentful silence.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Was it from dejection of spirits?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A tall, thin white man was standing beside them, his head bowed, his arms folded, his whole attitude expressive of his horror and dejection.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He was sitting on the side of his bunk, the whole pose of his figure indicating utter dejection and hopelessness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I sat in silent dejection until the stipulated time had passed.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They produced in me an infinity of new images and feelings, that sometimes raised me to ecstasy, but more frequently sunk me into the lowest dejection.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Till she had shed many tears over this deception, Fanny could not subdue her agitation; and the dejection which followed could only be relieved by the influence of fervent prayers for his happiness.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If, in the moments I and my pupil spent with him, I lacked spirits and sank into inevitable dejection, he became even gay.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Her mind did become settled, but it was settled in a gloomy dejection.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Hopkins’s brow was clouded, and he sat down with an air of deep dejection.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)