▪ I. chagrin, n.
(ʃəˈgriːn, -ˈgrɪn, ˈʃæ-)
Also 7 shagrin, 8 chagreen.
[a. F. chagrin (1) rough skin, shagreen, (2) displeasure, ill-humour, etc. The sense-development took place in French, where the word meaning ‘rough and granular skin employed to rub, polish, file’, became by metaphor the expression for gnawing trouble (Littré). In English the word in the original material sense is now written shagreen, q.v.
In the sense shagreen It. has zigrino, Venetian sagrin (Diez); ad. Turkish {cced}āghrī, {cced}aghrī, saghrī, rump of a horse, hence the prepared skin of this part, shagreen.]
† I. = shagreen.
† 1. A species of skin or leather with a rough surface: now commonly spelt shagreen, q.v.
| 1678 Phillips, Chagrin,..also the rough skin of a Fish, of which Watch Cases and handles of Knives are made. 1697 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 151 It is cover'd with Chagrin, and nail'd with Gold Nails. 1766 Phil. Trans. LVI. 190 The skin, which is black, is full of small scales, resembling chagrin. 1842 Prichard Nat. Hist. Man 92 It is of the tuberculated skin of the wild ass that the Levantines make the grained leather termed chagrin. |
† 2. fig. A shagreen-like surface. Obs.
| a 1734 North Exam. ii. v. ¶129. 394 Thoughts which..had made their skin run into a Chagrin. |
II. Of the mind or feelings. (Often referred to, c 1700, as an affected and frenchified term.)
[Cotgr. (1611) explains F. chagrin, carke, melancholie, care, thought; perplexitie, heauinesse, anxietie, pensiuenesse, vexation, or anguish of mind; also a disease or maladie: especially, such a one as comes by melancholie.]
† 3. That which frets or worries the mind; fretting trouble, carking care, worry, anxiety; melancholy. Obs.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Chagrin, cark, melancholy, heaviness, anxiety, anguish of mind; also a disease coming by melancholy. 1656 Cowley Pind. Odes Wks. 1710 I. 236 There are who all their Patients chagrin have, As if they took each morn worse Potions than they gave. 1677 Temple Let. Wks. 1731 II. 426 His illness..derived, perhaps, from the Fatigue and Chagrin of his Business. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 121 For, if he feel no Shagrin, or Remorse, His Forehead's shot-free, and he's ne'er the worse. 1712 Pope Rape Lock iv. 77 Hear me, and touch Belinda with chagrin;—That single act gives half the world the spleen. 1751 Johnson Rambl. No. 181 ¶7, I hid myself..in the country, that my chagrin might fume away without observation. 1840–7 Barham Ingol. Leg. (1877) 259 Each Saturday night when, devour'd by chagrin, he sits listening to singers. |
4. esp. Acute vexation, annoyance, or mortification, arising from disappointment, thwarting, or failure.
| 1716–8 Pope in Lady M. W. Montague's Lett. II. xli. 4 If there be any circumstance of chagrin in the occasion..I must..feel a part of it. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1879) I. 474/1 Marius died, with the chagrin of an unfortunate wretch, who had not obtained what he wanted. 1807–8 W. Irving Salmag. (1824) 152 Think of my chagrin at being obliged to decline the host of invitations that daily overwhelm me, merely for want of a pair of breeches! 1876 E. Jenkins Blot on Queen's H. 4 They managed..to..conceal their chagrin if they felt any. |
b. in pl. Troubles; vexations.
| a 1744 Pope Letters (L.), I grieve with the old, for so many additional inconveniences and chagrins, more than their small remain of life seemed destined to undergo. 1771 Nicholls in Corr. w. Gray (1843) 148 If I met with any chagrins, I comforted myself that I had a treasure at home. 1824 S. E. Ferrier Inher. xlvi, Mrs. Major had her own petty chagrins. 1887 Morley Crit. Misc. III. 154 Whom no vexations, chagrins, nor perversities of fate could daunt from fighting the battle out. |
▪ II. † chagrin, a. Obs.
Also chagreen, shaggarin.
[a. F. chagrin (15th c. in Littré) f. the n.: see prec.]
† 1. Grieved, disquieted, troubled; melancholy.
| 1666 Pepys Diary 6 Aug., My wife in a chagrin humour, she not being pleased with my kindnesse to either of them. 1678 Earl of Queensbury Let. in M. Napier Life Dundee II. 58, I know he is very high, and often shaggarin, and angry. 1691 Islington Wells 9 To say they've Melancholly been, Is Bar'brous; no, they are Chagrin. 1721 Ramsay Wks. (1848) II. 312 Weak, frantic, clownish and chagreen. 1722 De Foe Relig. Courtsh. i. ii. (1840) 38, I grew chagrin and dull. |
2. Chagrined; acutely vexed, mortified.
| 1706 De Foe Jure Div. vii. 149 Hell's bauk'd; the shagrin Fiends the Conquest own. 1708 J. Downes Hist. Rev. Eng. Stage 29 At which the French look'd very Shaggrin. 1711 P. H. View late Parl. 127 He is not a little chagrin about the Habeas Corpus Act being suspended. |
▪ III. chagrin, v.
(ʃəˈgriːn, -ˈgrɪn, ˈʃæ-)
[a. F. chagrine-r (16th c. in Littré), f. the n.: see above.]
1. trans. To trouble, vex, worry, grieve. arch.
| 1733 Fielding Int. Chamberm. ii. iii, Pray remember the condition she is in, and don't do anything to chagrin her. 1755 Mem. Capt. P. Drake i. 5 Which so chagrined me, that..I waited only an Opportunity of quitting them. 1792 Abp. Moore in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1861) II. 475 Those west winds chagrin me exceedingly, as they keep me in the dark about George. 1841–4 Emerson Ess. Self-Reliance Wks. (Bohn) I. 23 Every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right. |
2. esp. To vex acutely by disappointing or thwarting; to mortify. (Chiefly pass.)
| 1748 Anson's Voy. i. i. 4 Mr. Anson was extremely chagrined at the losing the command of..so desirable an enterprize. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 139 The captain..was so chagrined at his disappointment, that he died of grief. 1826 C. Butler Grotius xii. 200 The contradictions which he met with chagrined him. 1878 Black Green Past. v. 37 Surprised and chagrined by the coldness of her manner. |
3. ? intr. To feel trouble or vexation; to ‘trouble’. [= F. se chagriner.] rare.
(In quot. it may be the adj.)
| 1727 Fielding Love in sev. Masques, I would not have your ladyship chagrin at my bride's expression. |