Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To lower in or deprive of spirit; dishearten. See Synonyms at discourage.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To depress the spirits of; deprive of courage; discourage; dishearten; deject; cast down.
- To exhaust the spirits or bodily vigor of.
- Synonyms To damp, depress, intimidate, daunt.
Wiktionary
- v. Lower the morale of; make despondent; dishearten.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To deprive of cheerful spirits; to depress the spirits of; to dishearten; to discourage.
- v. Obs. or R. To distill or infuse the spirit of.
WordNet 3.0
- v. lower someone's spirits; make downhearted
Etymologies
- dis- + spirit (Wiktionary)
- di(s)- + spirit. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“His attitude and approach threatens to dispirit further not just his base but all Americans.”
The Huffington Post: Bob Jacobson: The President Is Dispiriting
“While the Republicans still have failed to cultivate a national identity, still fielding posers for presidential notions, they have been able to ride a tide plucking on that anger, dissent and dispirit.”
The Huffington Post: B.D. Gallof: One Year Ago, No Different Than Today: A Political Observation
“After all, although there is much to dispirit us with the state of our school system, it does educators no good to assume these ills have merely been "imposed upon them," and that they have no choice but to keep hoping, as passive victims, that better days lie ahead.”
The Huffington Post: Sam Chaltain: What's Your Declaration of Education?
“We can't let the furious, intense opposition from Wall Street, the insurance companies, Big Oil and the far-right fringe discourage or dispirit us.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Creamer: 10-2-10 Rally Gives Progressives a Chance to Stand Up Straight
“Bill Kristol thinks that Obama now regretting "looking like a tax-and-spend liberal Democrat" is the very first White House concession that should dispirit lawmakers.”
“As Shiyu Zhou, deputy director of the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, told Congress last year, "The Internet censorship firewalls have become 21st-century versions of Berlin Walls that isolate and dispirit the citizens of closed-society dictatorships.”
The Wall Street Journal: Mrs. Clinton, Tear Down this Cyberwall
“All that the trading away of key progressive goals to satiate the mythical middle has done is to dispirit progressives (i.e. low voter turnout in Boston) and to waft the stench of blood to conservatives, leaving Democrats with a wobbly base, an energized enemy and little to show for it.”
“The internal Obama campaign idea is to twist, distort, humiliate and finally dispirit you.”
““You will think yourself unlucky in these untoward Circumstances and you have really been so, but this must not dispirit us, for you may depend on it, I will persevere in making you the necessary remittance with all possible expedition.””
“It sounds more like a ruse to allow Obama to pass on another stumbling debate performance that would dispirit his drooling fanboys.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dispirit’.
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dispirit.
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