English Dictionary |
DISAPPOINTMENT
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Dictionary entry overview: What does disappointment mean?
• DISAPPOINTMENT (noun)
The noun DISAPPOINTMENT has 2 senses:
1. a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized
2. an act (or failure to act) that disappoints someone
Familiarity information: DISAPPOINTMENT used as a noun is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
A feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Synonyms:
disappointment; letdown
Context example:
his hopes were so high he was doomed to disappointment
Hypernyms ("disappointment" is a kind of...):
dissatisfaction (the feeling of being displeased and discontent)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "disappointment"):
defeat; frustration (the feeling that accompanies an experience of being thwarted in attaining your goals)
Derivation:
disappoint (fail to meet the hopes or expectations of)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An act (or failure to act) that disappoints someone
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Synonyms:
dashing hopes; disappointment
Hypernyms ("disappointment" is a kind of...):
failure (an unexpected omission)
Derivation:
disappoint (fail to meet the hopes or expectations of)
Context examples
Are her disappointment and sorrow of no interest to you?
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
We hurried eagerly along it until, with a deep groan of bitter disappointment, we were brought to a halt.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
She had had a disappointment, moreover, which that book, and especially the history of her own family, must ever present the remembrance of.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
I can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
But the hawk refused to come down and give battle, and the cub crawled away into a thicket and whimpered his disappointment and hunger.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The quantity of walking exercise I took, was not in this respect attended with its usual consequence, as the disappointment counteracted the fresh air.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And if you would stand by yours, you would not be much distressed by the disappointment of Miss Thorpe.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Before the week ended, it was all disappointment.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
But all the way through, from the first sentence to the last, was sounded the note of hurt and disappointment.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
But my disappointment was grievous and unexpected.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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