What does Discourage mean?

Definitions for Discourage
dɪˈskɜr ɪdʒ, -ˈskʌr-dis·cour·age

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Discourage.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. deter, discourageverb

    try to prevent; show opposition to

    "We should discourage this practice among our youth"

  2. discourageverb

    deprive of courage or hope; take away hope from; cause to feel discouraged

  3. warn, discourage, admonish, monishverb

    admonish or counsel in terms of someone's behavior

    "I warned him not to go too far"; "I warn you against false assumptions"; "She warned him to be quiet"

Wiktionary

  1. discourageverb

    To take away or reduce the courage of.

  2. discourageverb

    To persuade somebody not to do something.

    Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can (Abraham Lincoln )

  3. Etymology: From descourager (modern French décourager), from descouragier, from des- and corage. Surface analysis.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. To DISCOURAGEverb

    Etymology: decourager, Fr. dis and courage.

    I might neither encourage the rebels insolence, nor discourage the protestants loyalty and patience. Charles I .

    The apostle with great zeal discourages too unreasonable a presumption. John Rogers, Serm.

    Wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land? Numb. xxxii. 7.

    You may keep your beauty and your health, unless you destroy them yourself, or discourage them to stay with you, by using them ill. William Temple, Miscell.

Wikipedia

  1. discourage

    Deterrence in relation to criminal offending is the idea or theory that the threat of punishment will deter people from committing crime and reduce the probability and/or level of offending in society. It is one of five objectives that punishment is thought to achieve; the other four objectives are denunciation, incapacitation (for the protection of society), retribution and rehabilitation.Criminal deterrence theory has two possible applications: the first is that punishments imposed on individual offenders will deter or prevent that particular offender from committing further crimes; the second is that public knowledge that certain offences will be punished has a generalised deterrent effect which prevents others from committing crimes.Two different aspects of punishment may have an impact on deterrence, the first being the certainty of punishment, by increasing the likelihood of apprehension and punishment, this may have a deterrent effect. The second relates to the severity of punishment; how severe the punishment is for a particular crime may influence behavior if the potential offender concludes that the punishment is so severe, it is not worth the risk of getting caught. An underlying principle of deterrence is that it is utilitarian or forward-looking. As with rehabilitation, it is designed to change behaviour in the future rather than simply provide retribution or punishment for current or past behaviour.

ChatGPT

  1. discourage

    To discourage means to cause someone to lose confidence or enthusiasm, typically through efforts aimed at dissuading or deterring them from an action, course, plan, or decision. It can also refer to the act of making something appear unattractive or unappealing, or preventing an event or behavior from occurring.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Discourageverb

    to extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject; -- the opposite of encourage; as, he was discouraged in his undertaking; he need not be discouraged from a like attempt

  2. Discourageverb

    to dishearten one with respect to; to discountenance; to seek to check by disfavoring; to deter one from; as, they discouraged his efforts

  3. Discouragenoun

    lack of courage; cowardliness

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Discourage

    dis-kur′āj, v.t. to take away the courage of: to dishearten: to seek to check by showing disfavour to.—n. Discour′agement, act of discouraging: that which discourages: dejection.—p.adj. Discour′aging, disheartening, depressing.—adv. Discour′agingly. [O. Fr. descourager. See Courage.]

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'Discourage' in Verbs Frequency: #1033

How to pronounce Discourage?

How to say Discourage in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Discourage in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Discourage in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of Discourage in a Sentence

  1. Ingeborg Oswald:

    I really tried to discourage him ... I kept telling him over and over, there are no easy answers in life.

  2. Richard Grenell:

    They need to separate these issues. We don't want to encourage another country or another entity or another group to actually take Americans and then sit down across the table and, you know, use those Americans as negotiating chips. We absolutely want to discourage that.

  3. Thomas Troward:

    Our repeated failure to fully act as we would wish must not discourage us. It is the sincere intention that is the essential thing, and this will in time release us from the bondage of habits which at present seem almost insuperable.

  4. Steny Hoyer:

    We haven't really discussed how to dispose of The House, i'm not gon na try to discourage him, you know, he has to do what he thinks is right.

  5. Daniel Castro:

    To hold algorithms to a higher standard than human decisions implies that automated decisions are inherently less trustworthy or more dangerous than human ones, which is not the case, this would only serve to stigmatize and discourage AI use, which could reduce its beneficial social and economic impacts.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

Discourage#10000#20138#100000

Translations for Discourage

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

  • تثبيطArabic
  • разубеждавам, обезсърчавам, обезкуражавамBulgarian
  • vzít odvahu, odradit, zastrašitCzech
  • entmutigen, abschrecken, abraten von, abraten, abbringen vonGerman
  • αποκαρδιώνωGreek
  • persuadir, descorazonar, acobardar, desalentarSpanish
  • lannistaa, luopumaan, nujertaa, taivutellaFinnish
  • dissuader, découragerFrench
  • mengecilkan hatiIndonesian
  • scoraggiareItalian
  • לדכאHebrew
  • 思いとどませる, 落胆, がっかりJapanese
  • whakapāhunuMāori
  • одвраќа, обесхрабруваMacedonian
  • afraden om, ontmoedigen, ontradenDutch
  • zniechęcaćPolish
  • desalentar, desencorajar, despersuadir, desanimar, dissuadirPortuguese
  • descurajaRomanian
  • расхолаживать, отговаривать, отговорить, разубедить, расхолодить, обескуражить, разубеждать, обескураживатьRussian
  • discourageSwedish
  • ஊக்கம்Tamil
  • నిరుత్సాహపరుచుTelugu
  • กีดกันThai

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"Discourage." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/Discourage>.

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