dispirited, ppl. a.
(dɪˈspɪrɪtɪd)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
† 1. Deprived of its essential quality or vigour; destitute of spirit or animation, spiritless. Obs.
| a 1660 Hammond Wks. IV. Pref. (R.), Religious offices..degenerating into heartless dispirited recitations. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Pall'd, Flat, Dispirited, or Dead Drink. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 111 The Blood becomes so viscid, poor, and dispirited. 1758 Whitworth Acc. Russia 5 The Laplanders and Samoiedes being too heavy and dispirited. |
2. Cast into or characterized by low spirits; discouraged, disheartened, dejected.
| 1647 Trapp Comm. 1 Thess. v. 14 The dispirited, faint⁓hearted, sick and sinking. 1717 Pope Let. to Blount 27 Nov., My Mother is in that dispirited State of Resignation. 1741 Middleton Cicero II. xi. 437 A few unarmed, dispirited men. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxii. 290 He turned back and caught a glance at the dispirited faces behind him. |
Hence diˈspiritedly adv.; diˈspiritedness.
| 1654 tr. Scudery's Curia Pol. 175 A defatigation and dispiritedness will accompany that oppression. 1673 H. Stubbe Vind. Dutch War 4 The decay of Trade, the dispiritedness of the English. 1733 Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. ix. §3 (1734) 208 Opiates..when their Force is worn off..leave a Lowness, Dispiritedness, and Anxiety. 1864 Webster, Dispiritedly. 1889 Temple Bar Mag. Feb. 186, ‘I do not know’..said the lad dispiritedly. |