- present participle of disappoint.
disappointing
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of disappointing
First recorded in 1520–30; disappoint + -ing 2
Explanation
Something that's disappointing isn't what you'd hoped for. A disappointing baseball season usually means that your favorite team lost a lot of games. When the candidate you voted for loses, it's a disappointing election result, and a disappointing grade in your math class is lower than what you hoped or expected it would be. Disappointing comes from the verb disappoint, which means "frustrate expectations," but had an earlier definition of "remove from appointed office." The modern sense of disappoint and disappointing comes from "fail to keep an appointment."
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.
The 50-day moving average’s disappointing performance since 1990 stands in contrast to its track record in the decades prior.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
On the other hand, shares of higher end Hermes fell 7.2% after the company reported disappointing sales from China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
After a record summer spend last season of £450m, Liverpool were disappointing on the pitch.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
“Helium weighed on sales and margins, and the disappointing cash generation was impacted by the end of the factoring program,” the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Suddenly a disappointing trip had become interesting again.
From "City Spies" by James Ponti
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.
