Definition of "disappointment"

disappointment

/ˌdɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural disappointments
1. (uncountable) The feeling or state of being disappointed: a feeling of sadness or frustration when something is not as good as one hoped or expected, or when something bad unexpectedly happens.
  Quotations
  They remembered too keenly their pleasant credulity as to what to-morrow would bring forth, to dare indulge expectation of its pleasure; they had been disappointed once—so might they be again—for disappointment ever leaves fear behind.
  1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 184
  Choking back his disappointment after his own team's splendid wins against Liverpool and Aston Villa, he said: "I've got to be humble and say we were beaten by a very good side."
  1992, News Group Newspapers Ltd, Today
2. (countable) An example or the act of disappointing: a circumstance in which a positive expectation is not achieved.
  Quotations
  For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.
  2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎
  As the disappointments crowded in — the economy, Rhodesia, strife within the trade-union movement — Wilson tried the expedient of a semi-formal inner Cabinet, or Parliamentary Committee, as he misleadingly liked to call it.
  1990, Peter Hennessy, Cabinet, Basil Blackwell Ltd
3. (countable) Something or someone that disappoints: that which causes disappointment.

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