How to use discourage in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun
Discourage means to extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject. Example: “Don't be discouraged by the amount of work left to do: you'll finish it in good time.”
Examples of discourage by meaning
verbTo extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.
- Don't be discouraged by the amount of work left to do: you'll finish it in good time.
More sentences with discourage
- For some reason, they discourage loitering outside the store, but encourage it inside.From the entry loiter
- We backfilled the cistern with pea gravel to discourage its use as a refuse container.From the entry backfill
- Senate confirmation hearings are a real meatgrinder, discouraging people from government service.From the entry meatgrinder
- Ancient Sparta used iron bars instead of handy coins in more valuable alloy, to physically discourage the use of money.From the entry bar
- She felt discouraged after several unsuccessful interviews.From the entry discouraged
- The coach warned the team not to become discouraged.From the entry discouraged
- In a library, it is discouraged to talk amongst oneselves.From the entry oneselves
- He walked with a discouraged droop.From the entry droop
- Aiming for sky-high productivity, the company discourages the distractions and fatigue of moonlighting by paying people enough that most choose not to bother with a second job.From the entry moonlighting
- You discourage us from thinking outside the box and doing things our own way!2026 March 20, Gooseworx, “hjsakldfhl” (28:00 from the start), in The Amazing Digital Circus, episode 8, spoken by Gangle (Marissa Lenti). From the entry outside the box
- Bi's fertility doctor strongly discouraged that because of risks to the babies and surrogate.2025 September 3, Emi Nietfeld, Wired, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2025. From the entry twibling
- Meeting in person can then feel like a significant breach of trust, which many people find discouraging.2024 July 22, Mark Travers, anonymous quotee, “2 Reasons People Are 'Kittenfishing' On Dating Apps, By A Psychologist”, in Forbes, New…. From the entry kittenfish
- Trump for hours did little to discourage them from storming the building.2021 January 6, Luke Broadwater, Emily Cochrane, Matt Stevens, “Congress Rejects Republican Challenge to Pennsylvania Electors, After Day…. From the entry perfunctory
- Nature film-makers are discouraged from intervening in the events they are attempting to capture on film.2018 November 19, Aamna Mohdin, “Top film-makers back penguin intervention on Attenborough show”, in The Guardian. From the entry intervene
- Finger pointing is universally discouraged around the world, as it focuses too much attention on a viewer.2016 October 9, Janell Ross, “A guide to body language during the debate”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post…. From the entry finger pointing
- If it is aversive to the animal and discourages behavior, it is a punishment.2015, Ilona Rodan, Sarah Heath, editors, Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 47. From the entry aversive
- The practice of hānai was abhorrent to the New England missionaries, who discouraged it.2012, Julia Flynn Siler, Lost Kingdom, Grove Press 2012, page 8. From the entry hanai
- Frequently, it all ends with the hazee feeling out of sorts—discouraged, frightened, angry, disgruntled.2010, William F. Fry, Sweet Madness: A Study of Humor, page 166. From the entry hazee
- Abbas, still risking, qualifys almost absolutely, as the co discourages v their mug.2007 September 25, Ayub Brahimi bin Zamid, “She wants to grant evil foods below Ralf's department.”, in sci.crypt (Usenet), retrieved 26…. From the entry qualifys
- Conditioning treatments are employed to clean, detartrate, and discourage microbial growth.2002, Richard P. Vine, Ellen M. Harkness, Sally J. Linton, Winemaking: From Grape Growing to Marketplace, page 134. From the entry detartrate
- The original person who bought it got so discouraged they gave up and used some other methods.1994 March 13, Michael Dunn, “ICE for Z80”, in comp.os.cpm (Usenet), archived from the original on 06 Jun 2025. From the entry klugily
- Your parents who were concerned about your unlady-like habit most likely discouraged this natural curiosity of yours.1992, Heather Hunt, “Gender Equity in Science and its Related Fields”, in Chalkdust & Chewing Gum, St. John’s, N.L.: Jesperson Press…. From the entry unlady-like
- I don't feel that discouraging people from exploring where they will is in line with anarchistic thought.1985 February 9, Beth Walsh, “Monogamy A Radical Choice”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 29, page 4. From the entry anarchistic
- It is levied on certain products or services the consumption of which is discouraged.1982, Florentino G. Ayson, C. O. Resurreccion, The fundamentals of agrarian reform, page 173. From the entry sumptuary tax
- The profit allowance must be such that it will discourage the "speculator" or "suede shoe" operator.1970, United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Equal Educational Opportunity, Equal Educational Opportunity: Hearings, page…. From the entry suede-shoe operator
- He had scanty discouraged hair the color of tow, and a sickly, unpleasant breath.1944, Katherine Anne Porter, “The Leaning Tower”, in The Leaning Tower and Other Stories, New York: Harcourt, Brace, page 173. From the entry sickly
- He would encourage by bonuses, eugenic and discourage by fines dysgenesic marriages among his employees.1917 January, L. Oza Keshavlal, “Economics of Indian Agriculture and Industry”, in The Hindustan Review, volume 35, number 209, page 13. From the entry dysgenesic
- 'I bin in the Callow, and I've gotten a primmyrose,' continued Hazel, accustomed to his ways, and not discouraged.2025 August 16 [????], Mary Gladys Meredith Webb, Gone to Earth: in large print, BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, page 8. From the entry duck's frost
- With restaurants closed and travel discouraged, we asked what he’s ‘gramming, how he’s getting by, and how influencers will survive.2020 April 2, Jessica Sidman, “Food Influencers Are Still Gramming, Pandemic or Not”, in Washingtonian. From the entry 'gram
- Indeed, Type I IFNs have been shown to inhibit macrophage activation, thus discouraging mycobactericidal activities during Th1 immunity.2015 August 8, “AdHu5Ag85A Respiratory Mucosal Boost Immunization Enhances Protection against Pulmonary Tuberculosis in BCG-Primed…. From the entry mycobactericidal
- In general, use of macroing for linking and relations is discouraged, as it is better expressed through classes of relation.2010, John G. Breslin, Thomas N. Burg, Hong-Gee Kim, Recent Trends and Developments in Social Software, page 8. From the entry macroing
- Now, we aren’t discouraging dieters from learning about fat acceptance.2009, Kate Harding, Marianne Kirby, “Accept That Diets Don’t Work”, in Lessons from the Fat-o-sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce…. From the entry fat acceptance
- Discourage nighttime prowlers by installing motion-sensitive lights.2008 January 11, “What to put between you and burglars”, in CNN. From the entry nighttime
- Powis's answer was meant to discourage both trespassing and arborcide.2007 January 16, Anthony Ramirez, “Where There's a Plant, She's Got an Answer”, in New York Times. From the entry arborcide
- If your puppy guards his food bowl, you can help to discourage this unfortunate tendency by playing the following training game.2006, Patty Dobbs Gross, The Golden Bridge: Selecting and Training Assistance Dogs for Children with Social, Emotional, and Educational…. From the entry food bowl
- As long as “discouraging intellectual argument” can fit on the back of a “Focus” leaflet, that is fine.2006 October 11, Stewart Jackson, “NHS Workforce and Service Development”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons), column 329. From the entry student union politics
- In some cases, as in the Young case, this penal policy would discourage individuals from appropriate and encourageable conduct.2004, Hisham M. Ramadan, Reconstructing Jury Instructions in Homicide Offenses, Rethinking Homicide Law, University Press of America…. From the entry encourageable
- Until they do, however, the server will allow unpassworded access to those users, so we strongly discourage this approach.2003, Simson Garfinkel, Gene Spafford, Alan Schwartz, Practical UNIX and Internet security. From the entry unpassworded
- It is also the very thing that the old Dixonian police force was very good at controlling, discouraging and preventing.2003, Peter Hitchens, A Brief History of Crime, page 99. From the entry Dixonian
Meaning of discourage
- verb To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.
- verb To persuade somebody not to do (something).
- noun Lack of courage.
Questions about discourage in a sentence
- How do you use discourage in a sentence?
- Discourage is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Don't be discouraged by the amount of work left to do: you'll finish it in good time.”
- What is a short sentence with discourage?
- “He walked with a discouraged droop.”
- What does discourage mean?
- Discourage means to extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: discourage (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use discourage in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/discourage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
