discountenance

English

Etymology

From Middle French descontenancer (compare French décontenancer).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪsˈkaʊntənəns/

Verb

discountenance (third-person singular simple present discountenances, present participle discountenancing, simple past and past participle discountenanced)

1. (transitive) To have an unfavorable opinion of; to deprecate or disapprove of.
   • 1855, George Bancroft, chapter XXX, in History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume V, London: Routledge, page 74:

     A town meeting was convened to discountenance riot.

   • 1908, Edward Carpenter, chapter 4, in The Intermediate Sex‎^[1], London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1921, page 90:

     So far from friendship being an institution whose value is recognised and understood, it is at best scantily acknowledged, and is often actually discountenanced and misunderstood.

   • 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days:

     Mr Macgregor stiffened at the word 'nigger', which is discountenanced in India.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four‎^[2], Part One, Chapter 2:

     'Mrs' was a word somewhat discountenanced by the Party—you were supposed to call everyone 'comrade'—but with some women one used it instinctively.

2. (transitive) To abash, embarrass or disconcert.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The Second Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 39, lines 216–220:

     How would one look from his Majeſtick brow, / Seated as on the top of Vertues hill, / Diſcount'nance her deſpiſ'd, and put to rout / All her array, her female pride deject, / Or turn to reverent awe? […]

   • 1820, Walter Scott, chapter 16, in Ivanhoe‎^[3]:

     The hermit was somewhat discountenanced by this observation.

3. (transitive) To refuse countenance or support to; to discourage.
   • 1948 January and February, “British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:

     These were rejected by Parliament, which discountenanced the amalgamation of competing lines but gave broad approval in theory to end-on amalgamations.

Noun

discountenance (uncountable)

1. Cold treatment; disapprobation.
   • 1838, [Letitia Elizabeth] Landon (indicated as editor), chapter VII, in Duty and Inclination: […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 92:

     Highly tenacious of preserving over the mind of Sir Aubrey an undisputed sway, Lady De Brooke had seen with great reluctance the ascendency his grand-daughters were acquiring, which she artfully hoped to repress by throwing discountenance on the visits of their father, […]