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dismay

Pronunciation: /dɪsˈmeɪ/

The English word “dismay” has 5 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To cause to feel apprehension; great sadness, or fear; to deprive of energy.
  2. To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet.
  3. To take dismay or fright; to be filled with dismay.

noun

  1. A sudden or complete loss of courage and firmness in the face of trouble or danger; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits
  2. Condition fitted to dismay; ruin.

Etymology

From Middle English dismayen, from Anglo-Norman *desmaiier, alteration of Old French esmaier (“to frighten”), probably from Vulgar Latin *exmagare (“to deprive (someone) of strength, to disable”), from ex- + *magare (“to enable, empower”), from Proto-Germanic *maginą, *maganą (“might, power”), from Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”). Akin to Old High German magan, megin (“power, might,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.