disappointment

plural disappointments

1. uncountableThe feeling or state of being disappointed: a feeling of sadness or frustration when something is not as good as one hoped or expected, or when something bad unexpectedly happens.

   Even a trip to beautiful California can cause disappointment.

   2 more examples

   They remembered too keenly their pleasant credulity as to what to-morrow would bring forth, to dare indulge expectation of its pleasure; they had been disappointed once—so might they be again—for disappointment ever leaves fear behind.

   1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVI, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 184

   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."

   1992, News Group Newspapers Ltd, Today

2. countableAn example or the act of disappointing: a circumstance in which a positive expectation is not achieved.

   The disappointment with our trip to California caused bickering.

   2 more examples

   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.

   2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport

   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.

   1990, Peter Hennessy, Cabinet, Basil Blackwell Ltd

3. countableSomething or someone that disappoints: that which causes disappointment.

   What a disappointment!

   1 more example

   Even a trip to beautiful California can be a disappointment.