daunting
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Something daunting can scare you off. If you have a lot of studying to do, it may seem like a daunting task. Good news is you can get through it by working hard. Or weasel out of it by playing sick. Often used in the phrases “daunting prospect” and “daunting task,” daunting describes something that you are not looking forward to doing. Having to fill out complicated tax forms every year is a daunting task for many people. Once a daunting task is complete, you no longer describe it as daunting, but instead can call it a job well done, or at least another life experience survived.
Vocabulary lists containing daunting
The Alchemist
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 1
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Michelle Obama's final address as First Lady (2017)
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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.
His consternation, on finding it flee half open, may be easier imagined than described; especially, as on the door dunting to again, it being soople in the hinges, they both plainly heard a fistling within.
From The Life of Mansie Wauch tailor in Dalkeith by Hardie, Charles Martin
We were speedily together, the seven of us, and gathered in the hall, and listening with mouths open and hearts dunting, to the rapping that had no sign of ceasing.
From John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn by Munro, Neil
You auld besom you!" said he, dunting the floor with his rattan, "I see through you now; you think you'll get him put off on me.
From Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure by Munro, Neil
I quavered, and wondered if he heard my heart dunting against my ribs.
From Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Oemler, Marie Conway
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.
