discounsel

D2I1S1C3O1U1N1S1E1L1

verb

To advise (someone) against doing something.

OriginOld French desconseillier →
First used 15th–17th c.Scrabble 13
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Meanings

verbdiscounsel (third-person singular simple present discounsels, present participle (US) discounseling or (UK) discounselling, simple past and past participle (US) discounseled or (UK) discounselled)

present singular third person discounsels · US participle present discounseling · UK participle present discounselling · US participle past discounseled · US past discounseled · UK participle past discounselled · UK past discounselled

  1. obsoletetransitiveTo advise (someone) against doing something.First known use 15th–17th c.

    But him the Palmer from that vanity, / With temperate aduice discounselled […]

    1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto XII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    1 more example

    Anthony de Leva, seeing the Emperor his master resolutely obstinate to undertake that voyage, and deeming it wonderfully glorious, maintained neverthelesse the contrarie, and discounselled him from it[…].

    1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 41, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

Origin

  1. Old Frenchdesconseillier
  2. Englishdiscounsel

From Old French desconseillier.

More words from Old French

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

cloudinessundisclose
Cite this entry
APA

discounsel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/discounsel

MLA

“discounsel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/discounsel. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “discounsel,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/discounsel.

Source: discounsel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.