disappointment

disappoint +‎ -ment

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsəˈpɔɪntmənt/

• Audio (General American)

  (file)

disappointment (countable and uncountable, plural disappointments)

1. (uncountable) A feeling of sadness or frustration when a strongly held expectation is not met.
   • 1992, Today, News Group Newspapers Ltd

     Choking back his disappointment after his own team's splendid wins against Liverpool and Aston Villa, he said: "I've got to be humble and say we were beaten by a very good side."

2. (countable) A circumstance in which a strongly held expectation is not met.
   • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎:

     For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.

   • 1990, Peter Hennessy, Cabinet, Basil Blackwell Ltd

     As the disappointments crowded in — the economy, Rhodesia, strife within the trade-union movement — Wilson tried the expedient of a semi-formal inner Cabinet, or Parliamentary Committee, as he misleadingly liked to call it.

3. (countable) That which causes feelings of disappointment.

   Our trip to California was a disappointment.

   You are a disappointment.

• let-down

• disappoint