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
  • As the complexity of SLED can be daunting, it is recommended to start small and learn how SLED contracting works.
    Derek Hoyt, Forbes.com, 12 May 2025
  • Jiri’s path forward with a big sprawling, expensive festival deep in the shadows of Cannes, Berlin and Venice was fraught with economic hurdles and a daunting search for purpose and relevance in 1994.
    Steven Gaydos, Variety, 9 May 2025
Adjective
  • That historical tension—between the promise of scientific freedom and the peril of political control—may now be resurfacing in troubling ways.
    Alondra Nelson, Time, 13 May 2025
  • Grammy-winning artist John Legend opened up about the troubling transformation of longtime collaborator and friend Kanye West in a candid interview with The London Times published on Saturday (May 10).
    Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 12 May 2025
Adjective
  • Teladoc’s BetterHelp mental health unit has been a particularly troublesome business as paying users dropped off in the years following the pandemic.
    Ashley Capoot, CNBC, 5 May 2025
  • More lastingly troublesome is the general blindness to anything but race in her work.
    Julian Lucas, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
Adjective
  • One of the most unsettling moments at UFC 315 occurred when Bruno Silva left the Octagon after suffering a knockout loss to Marc-Andre Barriault on the early prelims of the fight card.
    Trent Reinsmith, Forbes.com, 16 May 2025
  • His Emilio is the protagonist and, although all the characters are given a shot at Death, Jacobs as Emilio is the most unsettling.
    Michelle F. Solomon, Miami Herald, 15 May 2025
Adjective
  • Proponents have long invoked civil rights language to promote vouchers, a disturbing rhetorical choice given vouchers originated as a tool for southern white parents to avoid the Supreme Court's desegregation order in Brown v. Board of Education.
    Kevin Sabet, MSNBC Newsweek, 15 May 2025
  • Actress Isabella Rossellini reflects on the film’s disturbing material and autobiographical elements while resisting reductive interpretations.
    Patrick Brzeski, HollywoodReporter, 14 May 2025
Adjective
  • Coupled with anxieties regarding a possible pullback in advertising spending, this created a worrisome outlook for the company.
    Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 12 May 2025
  • But worrisome events in Los Angeles suggest that the Trump Administration’s emphasis on government accountability is quite selective.
    Mike Fox, Oc Register, 12 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Dispiriting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dispiriting. Accessed 23 May. 2025.

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