Showing Results for "deterred"

deterred

American

[dih-turd] / dɪˈtɜrd /

adjective

discouraged or restrained from acting or proceeding.

A visible thief is a deterred thief, so installing motion-sensing lights on your property helps to protect it.
kept from happening; prevented or checked.

Assuming that those 79,000 deterred property crimes have an average cost of $1,900 each, that’s a savings of over $150 million.

verb

the simple past tense and past participle of deter.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

undeterred

adjective

Etymology

Origin of deterred

deter ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

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.

Real wrongs will continue to be deterred and uncovered by the news media, whistleblowers, the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 29, 2026

Allies are assured, and adversaries are deterred, by appearances of strength and signals of commitment.

From Slate • May 27, 2026

The mosque and those who attend have come to expect such rhetoric, but it hasn’t deterred those who worship there.

From Los Angeles Times • May 21, 2026

But Viking’s core customer base of older, wealthier Americans hasn’t been deterred from traveling, Talactac and Hagen told Barron’s last month.

From Barron's • May 14, 2026

But the appearance of its owner, the burliest of several women now employing the establishment’s facilities, deterred him.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023