1
as in bleak
causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer
spent her last years in the disconsolate environs of a cheap boarding house
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2
as in unhappy
feeling unhappiness
she was utterly disconsolate when her best friend moved away
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Recent Examples of disconsolate
As Wilshere and his players greeted the Norwich fans, across the Riverside pitch, Michael Carrick and his Middlesbrough squad were conducting a disconsolate lap of appreciation in a largely emptied stadium.
—
Michael Walker, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2025
After noticing disconsolate tourists wandering the perimeter, Taskinen proposed installing a café on the ground floor and restoring the building’s four spacious apartments into modest but comfortable rooms filled with Artek furniture.
—Michael Snyder, Travel + Leisure, 14 Apr. 2025
My father, disconsolate, would pace around what had once been their home in an exaggerated performance of his own uselessness.
—Hazlitt, 2 Apr. 2025
Outside, a disconsolate Santa presses his forehead against the building next door.
—Liam Sherwin-Murray, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
Outside, a disconsolate Santa presses his forehead against the building next door.
—Liam Sherwin-Murray, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
By the time the judge adjourned the court, Bryan was disconsolate.
—Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024
Context: Harris — who served as district attorney of San Francisco, as attorney general of California and as a U.S. senator from the state between 2017 and 2021 — could help electrify an exhausted, disconsolate party.
—Jacob Knutson, Axios, 22 July 2024
Khoury sees both films as portraits of artists in exile, with Farouk growing increasingly disconsolate over both his personal struggle as a filmmaker and the situation in Palestine.
—Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 20 July 2024
Michael Walker, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2025
After noticing disconsolate tourists wandering the perimeter, Taskinen proposed installing a café on the ground floor and restoring the building’s four spacious apartments into modest but comfortable rooms filled with Artek furniture.
—Michael Snyder, Travel + Leisure, 14 Apr. 2025
My father, disconsolate, would pace around what had once been their home in an exaggerated performance of his own uselessness.
—Hazlitt, 2 Apr. 2025
Outside, a disconsolate Santa presses his forehead against the building next door.
—Liam Sherwin-Murray, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
Outside, a disconsolate Santa presses his forehead against the building next door.
—Liam Sherwin-Murray, Harper's Magazine, 2 Jan. 2025
By the time the judge adjourned the court, Bryan was disconsolate.
—Michael Luo, The New Yorker, 29 July 2024
Context: Harris — who served as district attorney of San Francisco, as attorney general of California and as a U.S. senator from the state between 2017 and 2021 — could help electrify an exhausted, disconsolate party.
—Jacob Knutson, Axios, 22 July 2024
Khoury sees both films as portraits of artists in exile, with Farouk growing increasingly disconsolate over both his personal struggle as a filmmaker and the situation in Palestine.
—Christopher Vourlias, Variety, 20 July 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disconsolate
Adjective
-
Directed by Paul Schrader with a script by Bret Easton Ellis, this spiritually bleak L.A. drama features Lohan’s most daring performance, and probably the only one that manages to break completely with her childhood and adolescent roles.—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
9 Aug. 2025
-
The situation is bleak enough that, even if aid increases rapidly in the coming weeks, deaths from starvation are almost certain to rise.—
Isaac Chotiner,
New Yorker,
5 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
As with almost any change, some residents were unhappy, mostly about being told to slow down.—
Phil Diehl,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
5 Aug. 2025
-
President Donald Trump was unhappy with July’s U.S. jobs report, which showed hiring slowing (with 73,000 jobs added, compared to 100,000 predicted) and revised past months’ numbers.—
Emma Hinchliffe,
Fortune,
4 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Hero Ellen Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) lonely fight for survival gave way to a military mission to vanquish aliens ravaging a human colony; Cameron filled the frame with cocky Marines, boxy space tanks, and an adorable orphan who finds in Ripley a surrogate mother.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
5 Aug. 2025
-
The movie Marty was based on Chayefsky’s television drama about two lonely people finding love.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
5 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
Charlotte Lawrence loves a good, gut-wrenching, sad song.—
Leah Lu,
Rolling Stone,
7 Aug. 2025
-
Unfortunately, between the time of the taping and the show release, sad news came to Mike Kimmel’s team.—
Bill Kearney,
Sun Sentinel,
6 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
The fact that the jokes about Joao Felix come so easily is a little depressing.—
Liam Twomey,
New York Times,
2 Aug. 2025
-
Ari Aster’s first feature kicked off with the accidental decapitation of a child, and each subsequent film has only gotten more depressing from there.—
Nate Jones,
Vulture,
18 July 2025
Adjective
-
That view shifted Wednesday, with our double upgrade back to our buy-equivalent 1 rating after CEO David Ricks and several other company insiders bought lots of shares of the depressed stock.—
Morgan Chittum,
CNBC,
14 Aug. 2025
-
Though heartbreaking, the film is rooted in laughter, with Jamie living his life not in a depressed state but rather choosing to live in the moment.—
Lexy Perez,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
High-contrast, stark black-and-white tones, water droplets and a somber expression emerging from shadows.—
Evan J. Schwartz,
Forbes.com,
6 Aug. 2025
-
There were no somber emotions this time from Dončić’s side, with Balkan music blasting throughout the practice facility before he and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka held a news conference to celebrate Dončić’s extension.—
Khobi Price,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Aug. 2025
Adjective
-
But making Anna a music-biz manager trying to keep her heartbroken client Ella (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) from a meltdown on the eve of a big concert at the Wiltern is just a laborious way of wedging Anna’s former band, Pink Slip, into a splashy concert climax.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Aug. 2025
-
But his chosen career path ended his life — and nearly killed his heartbroken father, who suffered a stroke upon hearing the news that his son had been gunned down.—
Kerry Burke,
New York Daily News,
29 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Disconsolate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disconsolate. Accessed 19 Aug. 2025.
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