frustrated

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling dissatisfied, agitated, or slightly angry because one cannot perform an action or get what one wants, or because things turned out differently than hoped.

   He was frustrated that his careful proposal was rejected without any explanation.

   Drivers stuck in the closure became increasingly frustrated as the hours passed.

   Similarannoyed, exasperated, irritated, dissatisfied, discouraged

   Oppositesatisfied, content

   Note

   Where the "foiled" sense describes a plan or a hope, this one describes the person left holding it: a frustrated man, not a frustrated scheme. It grades freely (more frustrated, most frustrated) and pairs naturally with get, as in gets frustrated when it comes to money. Paul Doyle, reporting in 2012, calls a beaten manager "by far the most frustrated man" at the Emirates.

2. 2
   adjective

   Prevented from being carried out or fulfilled; foiled or thwarted.

   Her frustrated hopes of opening a bakery lingered for years.

   The treaty was a frustrated attempt at lasting peace between the two nations.

   Similarthwarted, foiled, failed, unfulfilled, abortive

   Oppositefulfilled, successful

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of frustrate.

   Repeated technical problems frustrated the team's attempt to launch on schedule.

   Their hopes were frustrated by a sudden change in policy.

   Note

   The verb form behind both adjectives. Frustrate can mean thwarting a plan or vexing a person, so its participle takes either kind of object: plans are frustrated, and so are people. With have it forms perfects (they have frustrated every effort). With be and a by-phrase it is passive. Once it accepts very or more, as in more frustrated, it has crossed into the feeling of exasperation.

4. 4
   adjectivePhilippinesimperfect

   Of a crime: carried through every act intended to complete it, yet failing to be consummated for reasons outside the offender's control.

   Prosecutors classified the assault as frustrated homicide, since the wound proved survivable.

   A frustrated theft still carries criminal liability even though nothing was actually taken.

   Note

   A term of art in Philippine criminal law, where it sits between a mere attempt and a consummated crime. The offender has done everything that should produce the result, yet the result does not follow: a frustrated homicide leaves the victim wounded, not killed. It stands directly before the offense's name, as in frustrated murder or frustrated robbery. Outside that setting it is easily misheard as the everyday "exasperated" sense.

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