disappointed

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling unhappy because something you hoped for or expected did not happen, or because someone let you down.

   Voters were disappointed by the candidate's broken promises.

   I was disappointed to learn the store had closed for good.

   Similardismayed, disheartened, disillusioned, dissatisfied, crestfallen

   Oppositepleased, satisfied, delighted

   Note

   A true gradable adjective, not just a participle in disguise. It takes more and most, and intensifiers like deeply sit naturally before it. Very disappointed can only be the adjective, while disappointed by the result could be either. A future frame turns the feeling into a warning: "If they came to hear me beg, they will be disappointed," says a character in Halo 2 (2004), promising someone else's letdown.

2. 2
   adjective

   Showing or signaling disappointment through one's expression, tone, or choice of words.

   A disappointed sigh escaped her as she read the final score.

   He shot the referee a disappointed glance after the call.

   Similardejected, crestfallen, dismayed, glum, rueful

   Oppositepleased, satisfied, approving

   Note

   Here the feeling has moved from the person to whatever gives it away: a tone, a face, a silence. It usually comes straight before a noun, and that noun names a sign, not a sufferer. A disappointed face belongs to someone disappointed in the sense of feeling let down. The adjective has simply been transferred, much as an angry letter carries its writer's mood.

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of disappoint.

   The final episode disappointed fans who expected a twist.

   His sudden resignation disappointed colleagues across the company.

   Note

   Past and perfect share one spelling here: they disappointed us, they have disappointed us. Older uses take unexpected objects. In the dated pattern the hope itself is let down (disappointed his hopes), and in an obsolete one a plan is disappointed, meaning thwarted. In the passive, was disappointed overlaps with the adjective of feeling. Adding very or deeply marks the adjective.

   The weather disappointed all our hopes of a picnic.

   The guards disappointed the plot before it could be carried out.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having had an offer of marriage refused; let down in one's hope of becoming engaged.

   A disappointed suitor, he left the county and never returned.

   She lived as a disappointed woman, her proposal long since declined.

   Oppositeaccepted

   Note

   A narrowing of the general "let down" sense to one hope in particular: the hope of an accepted proposal. Nothing in the word itself names marriage, so the meaning depends entirely on context, such as a suitor or a courtship. In older prose, a disappointed man may be lovelorn rather than merely displeased. In modern writing the plain feeling is the safer reading unless the story says otherwise.

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