defeatist

[ dih-fee-tist ]

noun

1. a person who surrenders easily or is subject to defeatism.
2. an advocate or follower of defeatism as a public policy.

adjective

1. marked by defeatism.

Word History and Origins

Origin of defeatist¹

1915–20; defeat + -ist, modeled on French défaitiste

Example Sentences

It is a rotten form of weakness, a defeatist and pacifist attitude that only can mean defeat.

From Washington Post

Unfortunately, this sort of defeatist measure was recently proposed in the House of Representatives.

From The Daily Beast

If anything is hopeless—and breeds hopelessness—it is this defeatist approach.

From The Daily Beast

And the Republican candidates are indeed attacking him as defeatist and weak.

From The Daily Beast

I will take her any day over the “educated class,” the bureaucratic mollusks and the defeatist sad sacks in Washington.

From The Daily Beast

In fact, he routinely refers to the traditional Muslim clergy as “imams of infidelity,” “defeatist imams,” or “hypocrite imams.”

From The Daily Beast

Moreover, now that I had had time to meditate upon it, I was more than ever defeatist about this scheme of Jeeves's.

From Project Gutenberg

But do you honestly think I could entertain such a defeatist notion for one instant?

From Project Gutenberg

Maybe it was being defeatist, yet he had to make sure that they had a way off this planet if the mission failed.

From Project Gutenberg

"You can't afford to get defeatist about this, Rod," Biddington went on.

From Project Gutenberg

Since April sixth insidious defeatist propaganda had permeated the mass of the people.

From Project Gutenberg