dishearten
Americanverb (used with object)
-
disheartens,
present (3rd person singular)
-
disheartened,
past participle, past
-
disheartening
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
disheartensimple
-
disheartenssimple
-
have disheartenedperfect
-
has disheartenedperfect
-
am dishearteningprogressive
-
are dishearteningprogressive
-
is dishearteningprogressive
-
have been dishearteningperfect progressive
-
has been dishearteningperfect progressive
Past
-
disheartenedsimple
-
had disheartenedperfect
-
was dishearteningprogressive
-
were dishearteningprogressive
-
had been dishearteningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dishearten
Explanation
If someone tells you not to be disheartened, they want you to stay upbeat and positive. Something that brings you down or steals your sense of hope disheartens you. Uncracking the code of the verb dishearten couldn't be easier. Just take it apart, and it quickly reveals its meaning. Dis- is a prefix that means "not, un-, take away." Heart in its figurative sense means love, care, and good feelings. And the -en at the end shows the word is a verb with the sense of causing something to be. So dishearten means "to cause someone's 'heart' to be taken away." We were disheartened by the news of still more home foreclosures.
Vocabulary lists containing dishearten
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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.
See Examples For:
Many young voters say that would dishearten them.
From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026
I began to wonder what we were going to find in this wasteland, but I didn’t want to say anything to dishearten Duncan.
From Seattle Times ● May 24, 2024
In “On Fire,” Naomi Klein’s purpose is not to dishearten but to awaken us to the growing global movement called the Green New Deal.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2023
Each day, 22 people die in want of organs, which should dishearten all Americans.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2023
“Do not be dishearten, young bahss. Today, we will be foun, to be true.”
From "The Cay" by Theodore Taylor
“It saddens me, it disgusts me and disheartens me,” Alvarez said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2023
"It disgusts me and disheartens me that people in our nation seem incapable of being decent people."
From Salon ● Nov. 23, 2022
It allows those who are responsible to remain unaccountable, and it disheartens those who seek to do the right thing.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 2, 2021
“These words have no place on News10NBC’s air, and the fact that we broadcast them disheartens and disgusts me; that it was not caught immediately is inexcusable,” he said in the statement.
From Slate ● Jan. 8, 2019
Such conduct, more than any thing else, discourages and disheartens him.
From The Colored Cadet at West Point Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, first graduate of color from the U. S. Military Academy by Henry Ossian Flipper
Parents said they were disheartened and upset about the city’s actions because of the effects on the children.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
As the intense heat bears down on a tent where people can charge their devices, we initially meet two young Egyptian men who are visibly tired and disheartened.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Markle had also remarked early on that she was disheartened that so much coverage of her romance focused on her ethnicity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
Not everyone is disheartened by the military's successes.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
Re-reading these brief moralistic appraisals usually left me disheartened.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
But it’s disheartening that Mr. Kozinski sees the Christa Pike case not as a reason to end executions but instead a reason to switch to a different method: firing squads.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
In many ways his post-match comments mirrored his team's performance - leaden, stale, disheartening.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
“To turn on the TV, to see that environment in Los Angeles, that’s disheartening to see,” Lupoi said in Berkeley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
What was really disheartening was the fact that day in and day out, they weren’t on the battlefield.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
It was both disheartening and worrisome to know we were out here alone with no hope of coming across someone to help us.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
