dejected, ppl. a.
(dɪˈdʒɛktɪd)
[f. deject v.]
1. lit. Thrown or cast down, overthrown. arch.
| 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece vi. 427 Buried in the Rubbish of its dejected Roof and Walls. 1881 H. James Portr. Lady xxvi, Looking at her dejected pillar. |
b. Allowed to hang down.
| 1809 Heber Passage of Red Sea 12 The mute swain..With arms enfolded, and dejected head. |
c. Of the eyes: Downcast.
| 1600 [see 3 b]. 1663 Cowley Pindar. Odes, Brutus ii, If with dejected Eye In standing Pools we seek the Sky. 1715–20 Pope Iliad ix. 626 With humble mien and with dejected eyes Constant they follow where Injustice flies. |
d. Her. Cast down, bent downwards; as dejected embowed, embowed with the head downwards.
| 1889 Elvin Dict. Her., Dejected, cast down, as a garb dejected or dejectant. |
† 2. Lowered in estate, condition, or character; abased, humbled, lowly. Obs.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iv. i. 3 The lowest and most deiected thing of Fortune. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. (1851) 71 The basest, the lowermost, the most dejected..downe-trodden Vassals of Perdition. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) II. 14 Able to reach from the highest Arrogance to the meanest, and most dejected Submissions. 1721 [see dejectedness]. |
3. Depressed in spirits, downcast, disheartened, low-spirited.
| 1581 Marbeck Bk. of Notes 115 So that he was deiected and compelled to weepe for very many, which had fallen. 1608–11 Bp. Hall Medit. & Vows i. §39, I marvell not that a wicked man is..so dejected, when hee feeles sicknes. 1667 Pepys Diary (1879) IV. 369 Never were people so dejected as they are in the City. 1793 Cowper Lett. 8 Sept., I am cheerful on paper sometimes, when I am absolutely the most dejected of all creatures. 1835 Lytton Rienzi x. viii, Thus are we fools of Fortune;—to-day glad—to-morrow dejected! |
b. transf. (Of the visage, behaviour, etc.)
(Often combining 1 c and 3.)
| 1600 Disc. Gowrie Conspir., With a very dejected countenaunce, his eies ever fixed upon the earth. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 81 The deiected hauiour of the Visage. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 85 ¶2 The Goddess..is to sit in a dejected Posture. 1769 Robertson Chas. V, III. xi. 273 In a timid dejected silence. 1822 Scott Pirate xl, I could not but move with a drooping head, and dejected pace. |