disappointment

noun

1. 1

   The feeling or state of being disappointed: a feeling of sadness or frustration when something is not as good as one hoped or expected, or when something bad unexpectedly happens.

   Even a trip to beautiful California can cause disappointment.

   They remembered too keenly their pleasant credulity as to what to-morrow would bring forth, to dare indulge expectation of its pleasure; they had been disappointed once—so might they be again—for disappointment ever leaves fear behind.

   Choking back his disappointment after his own team's splendid wins against Liverpool and Aston Villa, he said: "I've got to be humble and say we were beaten by a very good side."

2. 2

   An example or the act of disappointing: a circumstance in which a positive expectation is not achieved.

   The disappointment with our trip to California caused bickering.

   For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.

   As the disappointments crowded in — the economy, Rhodesia, strife within the trade-union movement — Wilson tried the expedient of a semi-formal inner Cabinet, or Parliamentary Committee, as he misleadingly liked to call it.

3. 3

   Something or someone that disappoints: that which causes disappointment.

   Even a trip to beautiful California can be a disappointment.

   What a disappointment!

Forms

plural

disappointments