dispiriting
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
Things that discourage you or make you feel hopeless are dispiriting. It can be dispiriting when the candidate you've supported and campaigned for loses the election. Anything that makes you lose your sense of enthusiasm is dispiriting. Watching your favorite basketball team be defeated over and over again is dispiriting. If you're counting on friends to plan something fun for your birthday and they completely forget about it, that's dispiriting too. This adjective stems from the verb dispirit, and its parts, dis, "lack of," and spirit, "life or inspiration."
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.
A few weeks ago at the end of a dispiriting workday, I dragged my husband to an outdoor show headlined by The Breeders.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
To a certain extent, the results have been dispiriting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Overall, it paints a dispiriting picture of the current state of creative affairs in the city.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
It will be a deeply dispiriting result for Italy, for whom a single try was a poor return for the level of pressure they put on Ireland.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
We were camped at a lofty spot called Indian Grave Gap, between two brooding summits—the one tiring to recollect, the other dispiriting to behold.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
