Daunt Meaning
/dɔːnt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo discourage, intimidate.
verbTo overwhelm.
Sentence Examples
The prospect was almost enough to daunt her.
I won't let any personal defeat daunt me.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The difficult challenge did not ____ her at all.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The prospect was almost enough to ____ her.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Old French danterbor. Latin domitō Old French donterbor. Middle English daunten English daunt 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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[The English] valiantly, and with the ſlaughter of many, put backe the enemy: which was ſo farre from daunting the Normans, that by it they were more whetted to re-enforce themſelues vpon them[…]"
— 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:
"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."
— [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:
"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."
— 1912, Alexander Berkman, chapter 17, in Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist:
"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."
— 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, “A Lost Dream”, in The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The difficult challenge did not ____ her at all.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The prospect was almost enough to ____ her.