DISMAY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dismay

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/dɪsmˈeɪ/ Listen

noun

Dismay n.

Loss of courage and firmness through fear; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits; consternation. "I... can not think of such a battle without dismay." "Thou with a tiger spring dost leap upon thy prey, And tear his helpless breast, o'erwhelmed with wild dismay."

Condition fitted to dismay; ruin.

Synonyms: Dejection; discouragement; depression; fear; fright; terror; apprehension; alarm; affright.

verb

Dismay v. t. (past & past part. dismayed; pres. part. dismaying)

To disable with alarm or apprehensions; to depress the spirits or courage of; to deprive or firmness and energy through fear; to daunt; to appall; to terrify. "Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed." "What words be these? What fears do you dismay?"

To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet. (Obs.) "Do not dismay yourself for this."

Synonyms: To terrify; fright; affright; frighten; appall; daunt; dishearthen; dispirit; discourage; deject; depress. To Dismay, Daunt, Appall. Dismay denotes a state of deep and gloomy apprehension. To daunt supposes something more sudden and startling. To appall is the strongest term, implying a sense of terror which overwhelms the faculties. "So flies a herd of beeves, that hear, dismayed, The lions roaring through the midnight shade." "Jove got such heroes as my sire, whose soul No fear could daunt, nor earth nor hell control." "Now the last ruin the whole host appalls; Now Greece has trembled in her wooden walls."

Dismay v. i. To take dismay or fright; to be filled with dismay. (Obs.)

See images of 'Dismay'

Etymology of 'Dismay'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dismay" Quotes from Famous Books

... Your faith puts my fear to shame. How can those who live in the Catacombs be afraid of death? It is but a momentary gloom and it will pass. But this day we have heard much to distress our hearts and fill our spirits with dismay." ...

— The Martyr of the Catacombs - A Tale of Ancient Rome • Anonymous

... motion. Cowls fell back and habits were swept aside, and where twenty monks had stood, there were standing now a score of nimble, stalwart men in the livery of Condillac, all fully armed, all grinning in enjoyment of her and Tressan's dismay. ...

— St. Martin's Summer • Rafael Sabatini

... slowly, and, on reaching Harrisonburg, to our dismay, the head of the column filed to the left, on the road leading toward the Blue Ridge, thus disclosing the fact that the Valley was to be given up a prey to the enemy. Gloom was seen on every face at feeling that our homes were forsaken. ...

— The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson • Edward A. Moore

... a short one, leading to some sort of a stable yard. Yet, though Jack Benson reached that yard in about record time, he gave a gasp of dismay. For the well-dressed fugitive was already out of sight, nor did noise from any quarter show the line ...

— The Submarine Boys on Duty - Life of a Diving Torpedo Boat • Victor G. Durham

... after, to read the interview and learn that I had done the talking and uttered a number of trenchant sayings upon female novelists. But the amusement changed to dismay when the ladies began to retort. For No. 1 started with an airy restatement of what I had never said, and No. 2 (who had missed to read the interview) misinterpreted No. 1.'s paraphrase; and by these and other processes within a week my ...

— From a Cornish Window - A New Edition • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

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