the winter of our discontent
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“The winter of our discontent” has come to suggest disaffection in general. The phrase served as the title for a book by John Steinbeck.
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.
This truly is the winter of our discontent, not just in the present but in our thoughts about a dystopian future.
From Barron's • Feb. 27, 2026
He began speaking into his prop phone; had someone passed by, they could have heard him reciting Shakespeare: “Now is the winter of our discontent …”
From Seattle Times • Mar. 19, 2022
Everyone knows the line "now is the winter of our discontent."
From The Guardian • Apr. 30, 2010
One London newspaper described it as "a mad final fling before the winter of our discontent."
From Time Magazine Archive
Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York, And all the clouds that loured upon our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John
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.
