Word.ws English Dictionary

daunting

Syllables: daunt·ing/ˈdɔːntɪŋ/US/ˈdɔntɪŋ/

daunting adjective: discouraging; inspiring fear. Also the present participle and gerund of daunt.

Adjective

daunting (comparative more daunting, superlative most daunting)

  1. Discouraging; inspiring fear.
    • Deathes daunting dart where so his buffet lights, / Shall shape no change within my friendly corse: / But dead or liue, in heauen, in earth, in hell, / I wilbe thine where so my carkase dwell.a. 1530, George Gascoigne, “The Frute of Reconciliation, Written vppon a Reconciliation betwene Two Freendes”, in The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper; […] In Twenty-one Volumes...
    • As for his menacing and daunting threats / I nill regard him nor his Daniſh power: / For if he come to fetch her forth my Realme, / I will prouide him ſuch a banquet here.c. 1590, probably Anthony Munday or Robert Wilson, A Pleasant Comedie of Faire Em, the Millers Daughter of Manchester: With the Loue of William the Conqueror. […] (Second Quarto), London: Printed for...
    Antonyms:
    undaunting
  2. Intimidatingly impressive; awe-inspiring, overwhelming.
    • [W]iſdome, much more all the excellencies of this Spirit) makes a mans face to ſhine; as the light of a Lanterne puts a luſtre upon the Lanterne, ſo the brightneſſe of theſe ſpirits puts a luſtre upon the men in whom they are. Men of ſuch ſpirts^([sic – meaning ſpirits]) as theſe are, have a...1638, Ier[emiah] Burroughes [i.e., Jeremiah Burroughs], “Wherein the Excellency of This Gracious Spirit Appeares”, in The Excellency of a Gracious Spirit. Delivered in a Treatise upon the 14. of...
    • She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy nineteenth-century façade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.1915, Edgar Jepson, “The Reluctant Duke”, in Happy Pollyooly: The Rich Little Poor Girl, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 135
    Synonyms:
    intimidating
    Antonyms:
    undaunting
  3. Appearing to be difficult; challenging.
    • It was a daunting task, but it was accomplished with some forward planning.
    • A trip of sixteen miles, through dark forests, in which they would not pass a single house, was an exploit sufficiently daunting for two such young and inexperienced boys. Love triumphs over fear and death; and these boys so dearly loved their father, that nothing was formidable to them, which they...1829, [Timothy Flint], chapter III, in George Mason, the Young Backwoodsman; or ‘Don’t Give Up the Ship.’ A Story of the Mississippi, Boston, Mass.: Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, →OCLC, page 41
    Antonyms:
    undaunting

Noun

daunting (plural dauntings)

  1. The act of discouraging or intimidating; discouragement, intimidation.
    • Face to face with the true mountains, / I stood silently and still; / Drawing strength for fancy's dauntings, / From the air about the hill, / And from Nature's open mercies, and most debonaire goodwill.1844, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Lost Bower”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 114
    • But stigmatise it as we please there never was a great man without a strong will, and an infusion of self-reliance sufficient to raise him above the dauntings of opposition and reliance on props.1849 January, O. T. Dobbin, “John Wesley, and the Principles Developed in His Career”, in John Kitto, editor, The Journal of Sacred Literature, volume III, number V, London: C. Cox, […]; Edinburgh...
  2. The act of defeating, overcoming, or overwhelming.
    • Then came in two by two, other Troopes, whoſe onſets, and ouer-throwes, honours, and diſgraces, darings, and dauntings, merit an ample Chronicle, rather than an Abſtract; [...]1613, Thomas Dekker; Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, compiler and editor, “A Strange Horse-race”, in The Non-dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker. In Five Volumes. […] (The Huth Library), volume III...
    Synonyms:
    taming, vanquishing

Also used as

daunting is also the present participle and gerund of daunt.

Examples of daunting in a sentence

  • She is not singular in that: go where I will, they giggle; that is rather daunting, you must think.1795 February 28 (first performance), Richard Cumberland, “The Wheel of Fortune; a Comedy, in Five Acts; […]”, in The British Theatre; or...
  • Abd-ool-Azeez gave the stranger a daunting look, but coolly proceeded.1819, Thomas Hope, chapter VII, in Anastasius: Or, Memoirs of a Greek; […] In Three Volumes, volume III, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC...
  • The daunting sounds arrived at the middle of the wall opposite the foot of the great bed, and became stationary.1906 January, Allen Upward, “The Ghost Hunters”, in The Royal Magazine, volume XV, number 87, London: C[yril] Arthur Pearson Ltd, […]...
  • Men of ſuch ſpirts^([sic – meaning ſpirits]) as theſe are, have a daunting preſence in the eyes of thoſe who behold them.1638, Ier[emiah] Burroughes [i.e., Jeremiah Burroughs], “Wherein the Excellency of This Gracious Spirit Appeares”, in The Excellency of a...

All 30 example sentences with daunting

Synonyms of daunting

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of daunting

Forms of daunting

Adjective
comparativemore daunting
superlativemost daunting
Noun
pluraldauntings

Origin of daunting

From daunt + -ing.

Words formed from daunting

Words that rhyme with daunting

Questions about daunting

What does daunting mean?
Daunting means discouraging; inspiring fear.
How do you use daunting in a sentence?
She is not singular in that: go where I will, they giggle; that is rather daunting, you must think.
What part of speech is daunting?
Daunting can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce daunting?
Daunting is pronounced /ˈdɔːntɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near daunting in the dictionary

  1. dauntable
  2. daunted
  3. dauntedly
  4. daunter
  5. daunters
  6. daunting
  7. dauntingly
  8. dauntingness
  9. dauntings
  10. dauntless
  11. dauntlessly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: daunting (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-daunting.wav.

Cite this entry: “daunting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/daunting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.