daunt
Americanverb
-
to intimidate
-
to dishearten
Usage
What does daunt mean? Daunt means to intimidate.This intimidation can be a pretty serious fear, like that of a warrior who daunts enemies in battle. More commonly, though, daunt means to intimidate in a way that’s disheartening, like a task that daunts you because it seems impossible.People who are intimidated in such a way can be described with the adjective daunted. An even more commonly used adjective is daunting, which comes from the continuous tense (the -ing form) of daunt. If a task is daunting, it’s intimidating or overwhelming in a way that makes you not even want to try to do it.Example: When I first started at this job, I was really daunted by my first assignment, which was reorganizing 10 years’ worth of files.
Other Word Forms
- daunter noun
- dauntingly adverb
- dauntingness noun
- undaunting adjective
Etymology
Origin of daunt
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English da(u)nten, from Anglo-French da(u)nter, Old French danter, alteration of donter (probably by influence of dangier “power, authority”; danger ), from Latin domitāre “to tame,” derivative of domitus “tamed,” past participle of domāre “to tame”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The process of filing a formal report can be daunting, and many folks opt to leave their jobs rather than endure a self-initiated legal battle.
From Salon
BRUSSELS—NATO military chiefs are on a daunting mission: Ignore the news.
Guimaraes could be a big miss for when Howe's men make the daunting trip to Paris Saint-Germain next week in the final round of league phase fixtures, hoping to secure a top-eight finish.
From Barron's
But is it really all that daunting to pick up your remote and click around a little to verify a shocking claim someone made on social media?
From Salon
Meanwhile Japan still faces the daunting task of decommissioning the Fukushima plant, a project expected to take decades.
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
