disaffected

adjective dis·af·fect·ed

Definition of disaffected

: discontented and resentful especially against authority : rebellious disaffected youth

See disaffected defined for English-language learners

Examples of disaffected in a Sentence

The troops had become disaffected.
Both political parties are looking for ways to regain the trust of disaffected voters.

Recent Examples of disaffected from the Web

In the opening shots of Dangerous Minds, a 1995 drama about another white teacher transforming her disaffected students into scholars, the camera lingers on students dancing in the quad and hanging out bus windows.

— anne beatty, The Atlantic, "Hollywood's Reductive Narratives About School", 30 May 2017
Encouraged by the Islamic State's setbacks in Iraq and Syria, al-Qaida is making a play for the allegiance of the Islamic State's disaffected followers as well as legions of sympathizers around the world, analysts say.

— the washington post, NOLA.com, "Al-Qaida tries comeback with bin Laden son as mouthpiece", 27 May 2017
A physical keyboard is a smartphone rarity these days, so T-Mobile’s offering is a nice nod to disaffected BlackBerry users who are looking to migrate to Android.

— nathan olivarez-giles, WIRED, "Huawei’s MyTouch Smartphones Are Newborns Ready for Retirement", 2 Aug. 2012

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'disaffected'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.