daunt

See also: Daunt

English

Etymology

From Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, donter (“to tame”), from Latin domitō (“tame”, verb), frequentative of Latin domō (“tame, conquer”, verb), from Proto-Italic *domaō, from Proto-Indo-European *demh₂- (“to domesticate, tame”). Doublet of dompt.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɔːnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /dɔnt/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /dɑnt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːnt

Verb

daunt (third-person singular simple present daunts, present participle daunting, simple past and past participle daunted)

1. (transitive) To discourage, intimidate.
   • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Harold the Second of that Name, the Sonne of Earle Goodwine, and Thirtie Eight Monarch of the Englishmen, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book VIII ([The Danes] […]), paragraph 38, page 407, column 1:

     [T]hey [the English] valiantly, and vvith the ſlaughter of many, put backe the enemy: vvhich vvas ſo farre from daunting the Normans, that by it they vvere more vvhetted to re-enforce themſelues vpon them: […]

   • [1865?], Eugène Scribe, translated by Charles Lamb Kenney, L’Africaine. An Opera in Five Acts, […] The Music by Giacomo Meyerbeer. Translated into English […], London: Published and sold by Chappell & Co., […], Boosey & Co., […], →OCLC, act III, page 34:

     Death I'll meet, my soul no terrors daunting, / Take the life for which thy heart is panting, / Spare not thou, though he spare, his life granting, / Or let death end us both at a blow.

   • 1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 17, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:

     No, I shall not disgrace the Cause, I shall not grieve my comrades by weak surrender! I will fight and struggle, and not be daunted by threat or torture.

   • 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, “A Lost Dream”, in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar:

     Ah, I have changed, I do not know / Why lonely hours affect me so. / In days of yore, this were not wont, / No loneliness my soul could daunt.

2. (transitive) To overwhelm.

Derived terms

• dauntable
• daunted
• daunter
• daunting
• dauntingly
• dauntless
• dauntsome
• undauntable
• undaunted

 

Translations

to discourage

• Bulgarian: сплашвам (bg) (splašvam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 使氣餒／使气馁 (shǐqìněi), 使畏縮／使畏缩 (shǐwèisuō)

• Czech: odradit (cs) pf, zastrašit pf
• Dutch: afschrikken (nl), ontmoedigen (nl)
• Finnish: pelottaa (fi)
• French: décourager (fr), intimider (fr), démonter (fr)
• German: abschrecken (de), entmutigen (de), einschüchtern (de)
• Italian: scoraggiare (it), intimidire (it)
• Portuguese: desencorajar (pt), desaconselhar (pt)
• Russian: устраша́ть (ru) impf (ustrašátʹ), устраши́ть (ru) pf (ustrašítʹ), пуга́ть (ru) impf (pugátʹ), испуга́ть (ru) pf (ispugátʹ), запу́гивать (ru) impf (zapúgivatʹ), запуга́ть (ru) pf (zapugátʹ)
• Spanish: descorazonar (es), intimidar (es), amedrentar (es), amilanar (es)
• Swedish: avskräcka (sv)
• Ukrainian: відверта́ти (vidvertáty)
• Zazaki: terknayen, peyser kerden, xod şıkiyen

to overwhelm

• Bulgarian: обезкуражавам (bg) (obezkuražavam)
• Czech: přemoci pf
• Dutch: overweldigen (nl)
• Finnish: musertaa (fi)
• German: überwältigen (de)
• Spanish: agobiar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: ^{(please verify)} einschüchtern (de), ^{(please verify)} entmutigen (de)

Anagrams

• Dutan

Middle English

Verb

daunt

1. Alternative form of daunten