frustrate

Formsfrustrates, frustrating, frustrated

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To cause someone stress or annoyance.

   Constant interruptions frustrate her during important meetings.

   The confusing instructions frustrated the new employees on their first day.

   Similarannoy, irritate, bother, aggravate, exasperate

   Oppositeplease, calm

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To hinder or block something so that it cannot succeed.

   Poor coordination frustrated the team's attempt to finish on time.

   Strict rules frustrate any serious effort to change the system quickly.

   Similarhinder, obstruct, impede, hamper, block

   Oppositefacilitate, help, aid, further

   Note

   Here the target is a plan rather than a person: efforts, attempts, proposals. In Frank Frankfort Moore's One Fair Daughter (1895), a coach horn's tooting "frustrated the proposal" by making it look ludicrous. The thwarting need not be deliberate, either, since clumsy fingers can frustrate typing efforts. Efforts and attempts are the natural objects, as in frustrate an attempt.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To thwart someone or let them down, annoying them by withholding something they were expecting or hoping for.

   The court ruling frustrated the heirs who had expected a large inheritance.

   A sudden policy change can frustrate workers counting on a promised raise.

   Similardisappoint, thwart, foil

   Oppositesatisfy, gratify

   Note

   The disappointment sense stays closest to the Latin, where frūstrō meant "I deceive": to frustrate someone is to cheat what they expected. Its object is a person (it frustrates me, it frustrated the heirs), and the feeling lies in the gap between what was hoped for and what arrived. When the object is a plan or an effort instead, the word moves toward the "thwart" meaning.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having no effect or use; failing to produce any result.

   Our frustrate search.

   c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”

   Similarfutile, vain, useless, ineffectual

   Oppositeeffective, fruitful, successful

   Note

   An adjective that was once the verb's own past participle. Middle English frustrat meant "prevented, disappointed, rendered useless", and this sense kept the last of those. Shakespeare's "our frustrate search" is a search come to nothing, and James Thomson still writes "this sole chance was frustrate" in 1874. Because the participle is now frustrated, modern readers may take the bare form for a slip. Useless or fruitless does this work today.

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