frustration
Pluralfrustrations (some meanings)
- 1The feeling of annoyance that arises when resistance or inability prevents you from achieving something.
Years of stalled negotiations left both sides simmering with frustration.
He slammed the laptop shut in frustration after the file failed to save for the third time.
Similarannoyance, exasperation, irritation, dissatisfaction
Oppositesatisfaction, contentment
Note
The everyday sense keeps the Latin image alive: frūstrātiō meant "disappointment," from frūstrā, "in vain." The feeling is effort meeting a wall. It works as a mass noun (simmering with frustration) and as a count noun for particular episodes (the frustrations of a long project), where the plural shades toward the thing that frustrates.
- 2The act of preventing a plan, effort, or desire from succeeding, or the state or an instance of having one's aims thwarted.
The frustration of the merger came after regulators raised antitrust concerns.
Repeated frustration of the rebels' supply lines forced an early surrender.
Similarthwarting, defeat, obstruction, failure
Oppositesuccess, fulfillment
Note
Here the word names the thwarting itself, not the feeling it leaves behind. It is the action noun of the verb frustrate, built with -ion. It usually takes of plus what was blocked: the frustration of a plan, of a merger, of supply lines. The of-phrase tells it apart from the feeling. Plans suffer frustration; people feel it.
- 3A general anger that is not directed at anything or anyone in particular.
He kicked the trash can in sheer frustration, angry at nothing he could name.
Months of small disappointments left her seething with frustration at nothing in particular.
Similaranger, rage, exasperation
Note
A looser, more diffuse use describes anger that has lost its target. The annoyance at being blocked points at some goal, but this kind simply hangs in the air. The Georgia Review in 1965 writes that "most attempts to love end in frustration." Frames like end in frustration and seething with frustration suit it, because nothing follows to say what the anger is aimed at.
- 4A thing or circumstance that thwarts plans or provokes annoyance.
The broken elevator remained a daily frustration for residents of the upper floors.
Among the project's many frustrations was a supplier who never delivered on time.
Similarannoyance, nuisance, headache, irritation, hassle
- 5The state of a contract that lets a party withdraw from its obligations because unforeseen radical changes have altered the nature of what was agreed.
The destruction of the wedding venue led to frustration of the contract, releasing both parties from their obligations.
Lawyers argued that the sudden export ban amounted to frustration, ending the supply agreement.
Note
Contract law turns the thwarting into a doctrine. A contract is frustrated when supervening events, the fault of neither party, make performance impossible or turn the obligation into something radically different from what was undertaken. The contract is then discharged. That absence of fault is what separates frustration from breach. Lawyers speak of frustration of the contract, or say simply that the contract was frustrated.
Practice
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Origin
From Latin frūstrātiō ("disappointment"), related to frūstrā ("in vain"); by surface analysis, frustrate plus -ion.