Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To prevent or discourage from acting, as by means of fear or doubt: "Does negotiated disarmament deter war?” ( Edward Teller). See Synonyms at dissuade.
- v. To prevent or discourage the occurrence of an action, as by means of fear or doubt: "It's this edge that gives nuclear weapons their power to deter” ( Thomas Powers).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To discourage and stop by fear; hence, to stop or prevent from acting or proceeding by any countervailing motive: as, we are often deterred from our duty by trivial difficulties; the state of the road or a cloudy sky may deter a man from undertaking a journey.
- Synonyms To hinder, restrain, keep back.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To prevent something from happening.
- v. transitive To persuade someone not to do something; to discourage.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To prevent by fear; hence, to hinder or prevent from action by fear of consequences, or difficulty, risk, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- v. turn away from by persuasion
- v. try to prevent; show opposition to
Etymologies
- From Latin dēterreō ("deter, discourage"), from de ("from") + terreō ("I frighten"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin dēterrēre : dē-, de- + terrēre, to frighten. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“While these adverse effects should certainly not deter from the use of these compounds where absolutely indicated (given the considerable morbidity associated with severe psychiatric disorders), avoidance of weight gain remains an important challenge that needs to be addressed.”
“Do not let the Young Adult label deter you either.”
“Don't let those nasty e-mails and phone calls deter you from your position.”
“And I think Calderon can do more for the poor people of Mexico, more to create employment, more to over the long term deter immigration to the United States, which is what we all want.”
“Would not such a name deter the seamen of the future?”
“Does sickness, and misery, and ruin deter the vicious from the commission of sin?”
“There must be consistent action again the menace, only then will a jail term deter others.”
“(I don’t think it’s controversial to concede that curricula play a significant role in determining the character and quality of education — but feel free to disagree withme.)”
“Longer prison terms deter people from crime; there are only 10 new criminals a year.”
“BUCHANAN: To say that the death penalty does not deter, which is the most serious penalty, is to say that no penalty really deters, and we ought to do away with punishment.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deter’.
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1861 more...
-
Barron's 1100 words you need to know ...
abjure, allay, complacent, connoisseur, debilitate, deter, discreet, evanescent, foment, glean, impetuous, occult and 8 more...
-
GCI
spinster, maiden, happy-go-lucky, homonym, ill-at-ease, saw red, out of sorts, hot under the collar, taken aback, pen-names, alias, shoelaces and 378 more...
-
Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
-
Week 1, Day 1
ignominy, marquee, deter, chariot, stern, perfidy, treacherous, insolent, presumptuous, banish, dubious, livid and 133 more...
-
my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
-
Basic Vocaulary
censure, appease, affable, conviction, heretical, mundane, exalted, detached, paradigm, charisma, conformity, allude and 96 more...
-
MsHalston's Words
theoretically, insufferable, apolitico, milquetoast, egregious, aplomb, elan, fraught, flummox, befrocked, moll, molten and 605 more...
-
New GRE Preparation List
All the words which I encounter during my GRE studies. :)
rhetoric, errant, arrant, artless, artful, ephemeral, libel, rhapsody, cloy, conjecture, relegate, aberrant and 927 more...
-
gre
histrionics, flamboyant, prevarication, verbiage, shun, aphorism, pithy, terse, contemporary, vertebra, ignominy, haggle and 96 more...
-
MY LIST
TENUOUS, LAMPOON, OBLIVIOUS, EPICURE, ACQUIESCE, PLUMMET, EPHEMERAL, BOLSTER, TENACIOUS, OBLIQUE, LACONIC, CREPUSCULAR and 518 more...
-
What Do You Mean #
get these dude
Irresolute, Founder, Barricade, Embellish, Avid, Raucous, Futile, punctilious, stark, trammel, interdict, solitious and 97 more...
-
My Personnal Words List on WordNik
Eloquence, dismay, abolish, Procrastination, hallowed, Audacity, provision, flue gas, perceive, aprodith, cult, mischief and 136 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for deter.
Kristianto2010 God usually doesn’t show us where He is taking us. He just asks us to trust Him. It’s like driving a car at night. Our headlights never shine all the way to our destination; they illuminate only about 50 meters ahead. But that doesn’t deter us from moving forward. Jan 16, 2011