disillusioned

adjective

dis·​il·​lu·​sion·​ed ˌdis-ə-ˈlü-zhənd 

: having lost faith or trust in something formerly regarded as good or valuable

becoming more and more disillusioned with politics

Overworked, tired, disillusioned, with a shaky marriage, the district attorney finally gets a case that he really wants to prosecute.

—The New York Times Book Review

The camps grew restive and disillusioned, but refused to give up.

—Nora Levin

The disillusioned children of troubled marriages suffer from their parents' transgressions long into adulthood.

—Marianne Gingher

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The agreement comes as an exhausted and disillusioned Armenia, decisively defeated in a 2020 war, concedes to most of Azerbaijan’s demands in hopes of being able to chart a new course without the albatross of endless war hanging around its neck. —Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 May 2023

Robert Maaser plays Heinrich, a disillusioned German army deserter who gets rescued from a lynch mob by a farmer, Elsa (Marie Hacke). —Noel Murray, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2023

Lady Caroline Lamb was among the hundreds of female admirers who sent 24-year-old Byron an anonymous letter of praise for this autobiographical work about a disillusioned young man finding rapture in the natural world. —Clare Mchugh, Washington Post, 28 May 2023

Each character represents an archetype in the current crisis, from the disillusioned activists to the young person whose health becomes the collateral damage of environmental malfeasance. —Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Apr. 2023

Its debut was one of the most fevered in Cannes history, drawing boos and some walkouts for the violence in Scorsese's tale of the disillusioned New York cab driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). —Jake Coyle, ajc, 10 May 2023

In this film-within-a-film, a Fellini-esque Hungarian circus arrives in the Italian capital just as Soviet tanks brutally quash the uprising in Budapest and the Italian Communist Party sides with the intervention, prompting Italian intellectuals to become disillusioned with communist ideology. —Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 3 May 2023

The flip-flop and its aftermath show how Trump’s freewheeling endorsement strategy in the midterms has at times scrambled the Republican battle lines, forcing some longtime allies to fight for his voters and leaving some staunch supporters of the former president feeling disillusioned. —Hannah Knowles, Anchorage Daily News, 20 June 2022

The original Irma Vep is about a disillusioned movie star. —Alex Ritman, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 May 2022

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Word History

First Known Use

1858, in the meaning defined above