dispiriting 1 of 2

dispiriting

2 of 2

verb

present participle of dispirit

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of dispiriting
Verb
In this excerpt, adapted from Seller’s memoir, Theater Kid (out on May 6 from Simon & Schuster), the producer lays out the musical’s long road from dispiriting workshop to its simultaneously triumphant and tragic first preview performance. Jeffrey Seller, Vulture, 11 Apr. 2025 One particularly dispiriting departure is that of Peter Marks, the longtime leader of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Nicholas Florko, The Atlantic, 2 Apr. 2025 One of the very depressing and dispiriting aspects of this is that Congress is not standing up for its prerogatives. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2025 The outcome ended what had been a dispiriting history for Maryland (25-7). Edward Lee, Baltimore Sun, 15 Mar. 2025 If blowout losses and dispiriting performances characterized the 2023-24 Sharks season, the team’s 2024-25 season has been pockmarked by heartbreak, with an almost uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Curtis Pashelka, The Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2025 The lengthy injury report is really dispiriting, with Dallas also down Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and midseason acquisition Caleb Martin. Steven Louis Goldstein, The Athletic, 23 Feb. 2025 Who better, then, to pry Eve loose than a rangy, rakish music journalist (Benjamin Bratt) whose game includes unironic hat-wearing and — like a dispiriting number of men in his age bracket — the unembarrassed deployment of Stephen Stills lyrics? Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025 The Vols look to avenge last month’s dispiriting loss in Knoxville; the Wildcats can earn a statement sweep of a respected team. Steven Louis Goldstein, The Athletic, 11 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dispiriting
Verb
  • Good air circulation will allow leaves and stems to dry out, discouraging disease.
    Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 12 Apr. 2025
  • Actions by officials in the two countries are also discouraging Canadian tourists from looking south.
    Skyler Swisher, The Orlando Sentinel, 12 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • For the Congolese government, the ineffective Western responses follow a dismaying pattern.
    Michela Wrong, Foreign Affairs, 3 Mar. 2025
  • Americans, and a dismaying number of politicians, keep crying for a crackdown on crimes that aren’t happening.
    F.K. Plous, Chicago Tribune, 8 Jan. 2025
Adjective
  • Marijuana − medical and recreational − is legal throughout more than half of the United States, and for some looking to familiarize themselves with the plant and its effects, learning all of the associated terminology may feel daunting.
    Greta Cross, USA Today, 18 Apr. 2025
  • There’s more than science and math to baking, but the precise chemical reactions required to make a brownie chewy, cakey or fudgy, or the kinds of cause and effect that determine whether a dough rises or falls, can sometimes feel daunting.
    Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Trump imperils Harvard’s nonprofit status Don Ingber, a renowned biologist at Harvard, woke up this week to a troubling email.
    Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 20 Apr. 2025
  • From around 2006 to 2010, a series of major business downturns, including a bankruptcy filing and several key lawsuits, led Kinkade into a downward spiral of troubling public behavior and substance abuse.
    Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Temu is running approximately 27,000 ads across Meta sites and apps globally, particularly in Europe and the U.K. That could be troublesome for Meta’s advertising business, which has gotten a significant boost from the discount retailer.
    Annie Palmer, CNBC, 16 Apr. 2025
  • This meant that instead of simply stopping Ukraine from being so troublesome, Russia now sought to demonstrate to NATO countries that it could not be broken by economic sanctions or the alliance’s weapons supplies to Ukraine.
    Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs, 14 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • The voice of Pope Francis has been such a voice—gentle, disarming, and at times, unsettling.
    Thomas G. Moukawsher, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 Apr. 2025
  • These experiments busted the urban myth but also pointed to a the truth about how companies like Facebook sometimes serve up such disturbingly accurate advertisements that is much more complex, and unsettling.
    New Atlas, New Atlas, 24 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Ghosts that wink could be scary but the face Sal makes is disturbing in other ways.
    Keith Phipps, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2025
  • In cases where advertising is inevitable, some prefer ads that appeal on a personal level over messaging that can be inappropriate or, even, disturbing and offensive.
    ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 16 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Bond traders in 2025: The bond market sell-off is more worrisome than the one in stocks.
    Susan Tompor, USA Today, 18 Apr. 2025
  • Given that, over the course of the show, White has written exactly one Black main character (though she’s appeared twice), that might be worrisome.
    Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 9 Apr. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dispiriting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dispiriting. Accessed 29 Apr. 2025.

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