# discourage

/dɪˈskɝɪdʒ/ (US) · /dɪskˈʌɹɪdʒ/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/discourage
Updated: 2026-06-20

## Senses

### 1. to dishearten

verb · CEFR B2

to make someone lose hope or confidence so they want to stop trying.

For teachers: to deprive of courage, hope, or confidence; to dishearten or deject. Transitive, taking a person as the direct object.

- The difficult math problems started to discourage the students after an hour of work.
- Repeated rejections from publishers began to discourage the young novelist, despite the initial praise her manuscript had received from her peers.

### 2. to persuade against

verb · CEFR B2

to try to stop something from happening or to talk someone out of an idea.

For teachers: to dissuade or deter someone from a course of action. Often used with the pattern 'discourage someone from doing something'.

- The high prices at the shop discourage many people from buying organic food.
- The government introduced a new tax on sugary drinks to discourage citizens from consuming unhealthy amounts of soda.

## Examples

- My parents discourage me from staying up too late.
- The high cost of parking in the city center is intended to discourage people from driving to work.
- While the initial setbacks might discourage a less determined researcher, she viewed the failed experiments as necessary steps toward a more refined hypothesis.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.