DISAPPOINT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does disappoint mean? 

• DISAPPOINT (verb)
  The verb DISAPPOINT has 1 sense:

1. fail to meet the hopes or expectations of

  Familiarity information: DISAPPOINT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISAPPOINT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they disappoint    ... he / she / it disappoints   
Past simple: disappointed   
Past participle: disappointed   
-ing form: disappointing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fail to meet the hopes or expectations of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

disappoint; let down

Context example:

Her boyfriend let her down when he did not propose marriage

Hypernyms (to "disappoint" is one way to...):

baffle; bilk; cross; foil; frustrate; queer; scotch; spoil; thwart (hinder or prevent (the efforts, plans, or desires) of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "disappoint"):

betray; fail (disappoint, prove undependable to; abandon, forsake)

come short; fall short (fail to meet (expectations or standards))

disenchant; disillusion (free from enchantment)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

The bad news will disappoint him
The performance is likely to disappoint Sue

Derivation:

disappointment (an act (or failure to act) that disappoints someone)

disappointment (a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized)

 Context examples 

Hush! It won't come to anything, I dare say, but I couldn't rest till I had tried, and I said nothing about it because I didn't want anyone else to be disappointed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The first page was disappointing, however, as it contained nothing but the picture of a very fat man in a pea-jacket, with the legend, "Jimmy Colver on the Mail-boat," written beneath it.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Surely I should not be wholly disappointed to-night, when I had so many things to say to him!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I am sure you will not disappoint my opinion of you, by failing at any time to treat your aunt Norris with the respect and attention that are due to her.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It was painful to her to disappoint and displease them, particularly to displease her brother; but she could not repent her resistance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The heir presumptive, the very William Walter Elliot, Esq., whose rights had been so generously supported by her father, had disappointed her.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

He had rather hoped that his wife's views on the stranger would be disappointed; but he soon found out that he had a different story to hear.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Initially, Troja said, she and her colleagues were disappointed because the data didn't match expectations.

(Astronomers find a golden glow from a distant stellar collision, National Science Foundation)

Men told this to one another, and looked each time to see it happen; but White Fang always disappointed them.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I thought Mr. Creakle was disappointed.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)