discountenances

Verb

discountenance (third-person singular simple present discountenances, present participle discountenancing, simple past and past participle discountenanced)

1. (transitive) To have an unfavorable opinion of; to deprecate or disapprove of.
   • A town meeting was convened to discountenance riot.1855, George Bancroft, chapter XXX, in History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume V, London: Routledge, page 74
2. (transitive) To abash, embarrass or disconcert.
   • How would one look from his Majeſtick brow, / Seated as on the top of Vertues hill, / Diſcount'nance her deſpiſ'd, and put to rout / All her array, her female pride deject, / Or turn to reverent awe? […]1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 39, lines 216–220
3. (transitive) To refuse countenance or support to; to discourage.
   • These were rejected by Parliament, which discountenanced the amalgamation of competing lines but gave broad approval in theory to end-on amalgamations.1948 January and February, “British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 1

See all 4 meanings of discountenance