frustrate
/fɹʌˈstɹeɪt/US/ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/
frustrate verb: to disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired.
Verb
frustrate (third-person singular simple present frustrates, present participle frustrating, simple past and past participle frustrated)
- To disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired.
- It frustrates me to do all this work and then lose it all.
- To hinder or thwart.
- My clumsy fingers frustrate my typing efforts.
- Perhaps it was the too-tooing of the youth on the coach horn which frustrated the proposal, and made it appear ludicrous rather than insultive to her ears.1895, Frank Frankfort Moore, chapter VI, in One Fair Daughter, volume 1, pages 234–235
- To cause stress or annoyance.
- This test frustrates me because if I fail, it'll destroy my grade.
- Synonyms:
- aggravate, annoy, nettle, rankle, ruffle, sting, burn someone's ass, antagonize, bother, disgruntle
Adjective
frustrate (comparative more frustrate, superlative most frustrate)
- Ineffectual; useless; fruitless.
- Our frustrate search.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- In all eternity I had one chance
One few years' term of gracious human life
[…]
And this sole chance was frustrate from my birth
A mockery, a delusion; […]1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night, volume XVI
frustrate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
frustrate in Tamil
- தடு, வெறுப்பூட்டு, சலிப்படை, சலிப்படைய வை
frustrate in Urdu
- بےاثر, بےفائدہ, دکھاوٹی, بےاثر کرنا, دانت کھٹے کرنا, پچر مارنا
frustrate in Bengali
- ব্যর্থ করা, হতাশ করা, পণ্ড করা
frustrate in Malayalam
- foil, thwart, defeat
- പറ്റാതാക്കുക, വിഫലമാക്കുക, നിഷ്ഫലമാക്കുക, മുടക്കുക, വിഫലപ്പെടുത്തുക, അഫലീകരിക്കുക
- infuriate, exasperate, annoy
- ഇച്ഛാഭംഗം വരുത്തുക, മോഹഭംഗം വരുക, ആശാഭംഗം വരുക, അലട്ടുക, ദേഷ്യം വരുത്തുക, ദേഷ്യം പിടിപ്പിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- frustrate in Kannada
- ಅಡ್ಡಿಪಡಿಸು, ತಡೆಮಾಡು, ಭಂಗಗೊಳಿಸು, ಮುರಿ
- frustrate in Arabic
- فَشَّلَ faššala
Examples of frustrate in a sentence
- The obstructionists didn't have their own plan, but they counted, successfully, on delay to frustrate any alternative.
- And when that happens, the medium frustrates even more with its fleetingness.
- But Fate, it appeared, had arranged beforehand to frustrate this Sybaritic dream.
Synonyms of frustrate
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of frustrate
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | frustrates |
| present participle | frustrating |
| past participle | frustrated |
| past | frustrated |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more frustrate |
| superlative | most frustrate |
Origin of frustrate
From Middle English frustraten (“to prevent, disappoint, render useless”), from Latin frūstrātus, perfect passive participle of frūstrō (“to deceive”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Compare French frustrer.
From Middle English frustrat (“prevented, disappointed, rendered useless”, adjective as well as past participle of frustraten (see Etymology 1)), from Latin frūstrātus, perfect passive participle of frūstrō (“to deceive”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix).
Words formed from frustrate
Words that rhyme with frustrate
Questions about frustrate
- What does frustrate mean?
- Frustrate means to disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired.
- What is frustrate in Tamil?
- Frustrate in Tamil is தடு, வெறுப்பூட்டு, சலிப்படை. See Frustrate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is frustrate?
- Frustrate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce frustrate?
- Frustrate is pronounced /fɹʌˈstɹeɪt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of frustrate?
- The past tense of frustrate is frustrated.
Words near frustrate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: frustrate (page history and authors); frustrate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); frustrate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Frustrate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); frustrate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); frustrate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-frustrate.wav.
Cite this entry: “frustrate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/frustrate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.