disappoint

Verb

disappoint (third-person singular simple present disappoints, present participle disappointing, simple past and past participle disappointed)

1. (transitive) To sadden or displease (someone) by underperforming, or by not delivering something promised or hoped for.
   • His lack of respect disappointed her.
   • I was disappointed by last year’s revenue.
2. (transitive) To deprive (someone of something expected or hoped for).
   • They that haue money in their purse, are afrayde and in doubte, yea and are continuallye martyred with feare, leaste GOD should disappoint them of their pray, and abate their portion.1574, Arthur Golding, transl., Sermons of Master John Calvin, upon the Booke of Job, London: Lucas Harison and George Byshop, Sermon 32, p. 163
   • Bless me from an old waiting-womans wrath; she’l never forgive me the disappointing her of a promise when I was drunk;1637, Thomas Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, Act V, Scene 4, in Comedies and Tragedies, London: Henry Herringman, 1664, p. 152
3. (dated, transitive) To fail to meet (an expectation); to fail to fulfil (a hope).
   • It is not uncommon for those who at their first entrance into the world were distinguished for eminent attainments or superior abilities, to disappoint the hopes which they had raised, and to end in neglect and obscurity that life which they began in celebrity and honour.1751, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 127, 4 June, 1751, Volume 4, London: J. Payne and J. Bouquet, 1752, pp. 240-241
   • […] his life was despaired of; and all Japan was filled with alarm and apprehension at the prospect of an infant’s ascending the throne: […] Their fears, however, were happily disappointed by the recovery of the emperor,1769, Tobias Smollett, The History and Adventures of an Atom, volume 2, London: Robinson and Roberts, pages 165–166
4. (dated, transitive) To show (an opinion, belief, etc.) to be mistaken.
   • I am sure you will not disappoint my opinion of you, by failing at any time to treat your aunt Norris with the respect and attention that are due to her.1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 6
   • “Well, I thought it was too good to be true,” he said at last, with a sigh of disappointed conviction.1909, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 14”, in Anne of Avonlea, Boston: L. C. Page, page 150
5. (obsolete, transitive) To prevent (something planned or attempted).
   • He [God] disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 5:12
   • The wary Trojan shrinks, and bending low
     Beneath his Buckler, disappoints the Blow.1716, Homer, “Book VII”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 201

   Synonyms:

   frustrate, thwart