defeatism
[dih-fee-tiz-uh m]
- the attitude, policy, or conduct of a person who admits, expects, or no longer resists defeat, as because of a conviction that further struggle or effort is futile; pessimistic resignation.
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Origin of defeatism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for defeatism
Contemporary Examples
Third, pulling out before any real efforts have been tried sends a message of hopelessness and defeatism more than anything else.
It was a country that had succumbed to paralysis and defeatism and nostalgia.
It seems at this point that dysfunction and defeatism are institutionally baked into the culture of the team.
For decades since, Britain has exercised its political resentments in the defeatism of the sporting field.
Even the Taliban picked it up as a supposed sign of American defeatism.
Historical Examples
But not because of any anti-life attitude, or pessimism, or defeatism.
The VictorBryce Walton
The army was demoralized and saturated with the defeatism preached by the Porazhentsi.
BolshevismJohn Spargo
Some in our midst have sought to instill a feeling of fear and defeatism in the minds of the American people about this problem.
State of the Union Addresses of Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
To face the task of finding jobs faster than invention can take them away--is not defeatism.
State of the Union Addresses of Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt
defeatism
- a ready acceptance or expectation of defeat
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for defeatism
n.
1918; see defeatist.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper