DISCOURAGE

warn, discourage, admonish, monish

(verb) advise or counsel in terms of someone’s behavior; “I warned him not to go too far”; “I warn you against false assumptions”; “She warned him to be quiet”

deter, discourage

(verb) try to prevent; show opposition to; “We should discourage this practice among our youth”

discourage

(verb) deprive of courage or hope; take away hope from; cause to feel discouraged

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Verb

discourage (third-person singular simple present discourages, present participle discouraging, simple past and past participle discouraged) (transitive)

(transitive) To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject.

(transitive) To persuade somebody not to do (something).

Synonyms

• becourage

• deter

• dissuade

Antonyms

• encourage

Noun

discourage (uncountable)

(rare) Lack of courage

Synonyms

• (lack of courage): cowardliness

Source: Wiktionary

Dis*cour"age (; 48), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Discouraged; p. pr. & vb. n. Discouraging.] Etym: [Pref. dis- + courage: cf. OF. descoragier, F. décourager: pref. des- (L. dis-) + corage, F. courage. See Courage.]

1. To extinguish the courage of; to dishearten; to depress the spirits of; to deprive of confidence; to deject; -- the opposite of encourage; as, he was discouraged in his undertaking; he need not be discouraged from a like attempt. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged. Col. iii. 21.

2. To dishearten one with respect to; to discountenance; to seek to check by disfavoring; to deter one from; as, they discouraged his efforts.

Syn.

– To dishearten; dispirit; depress; deject; dissuade; disfavor.

Dis*cour"age, n.

Definition: Lack of courage; cowardliness.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition