disappoint
/ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.67 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To sadden or displease (someone) by underperforming, or by not delivering something promised or hoped for.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "His lack of respect disappointed her."
- "I was disappointed by last year’s revenue."
- "Here are officers enough at Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country."
- "My father liked his rice light and fluffy, but separate. […] Since he’d gone so long without a taste, the possibility of disappointing him weighed heavily on my mother."
- "They that haue money in their purse, are afrayde and in doubte, yea and are continuallye martyred with feare, leaste GOD should disappoint them of their pray, and abate their portion."
- "1637, Thomas Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, Act V, Scene 4, in Comedies and Tragedies, London: Henry Herringman, 1664, p. 152, Bless me from an old waiting-womans wrath; she’l never forgive me the disappointing her of a promise when I was drunk;"
Etymology
From Middle French desapointer (compare French désappointer). The word originally meant to "dispossess of appointed office", and eventually broadened to mean "to frustrate the expectations or desires of" and "defeat the realization or fulfillment of".
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪnt/
- British English: /dɪsəˈpɔɪnt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Phrases
disappointed adjective
disappointing adjective
disappointer noun
disappointment noun