discouragedis‧cour‧age /dɪsˈkʌrɪdʒ $ -ˈkɜːr-/ ●●○ verb [transitive] 
Verb Table Examples
attempts to discourage illegal immigrationdiscourage somebody from doing something My father is a lawyer, and he discouraged me from entering the field.GRAMMARYou say: · She discouraged me from going. ✗Don’t say: She discouraged me to go.Grammar guide ‒ VERBS2to make someone less confident or less willing to do something SYN demoralize OPP encourage: You should not let one failure discourage you.3to make something less likely to happen OPP encourage: Aspirin may discourage tumour growth in some types of cancer.
Verb TableVERB TABLE
discourage
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | discourage |
| he, she, it | discourages | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | discouraged |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have discouraged |
| he, she, it | has discouraged | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had discouraged |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will discourage |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have discouraged |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am discouraging |
| he, she, it | is discouraging | |
| you, we, they | are discouraging | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was discouraging |
| you, we, they | were discouraging | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been discouraging |
| he, she, it | has been discouraging | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been discouraging |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be discouraging |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been discouraging |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- Although the troubles in the financial markets have made his cautious, Reid said they haven't discouraged him.
- Girls are sometimes discouraged from studying subjects like engineering and physics.
- Higher cigarette prices do not seem to discourage people from smoking.
- Higher taxes are likely to discourage investment.
- It is a well known fact that a negative working environment discourages creativity.
- Leave the lights on when you're out in order to discourage burglars.
- Put the plant in a cold room to discourage growth.
- The cameras should discourage shoplifters.
- Trying to lose weight fast will only discourage you.
- We need to discourage the use of cars for short journeys.
- What discouraged me most was our lack of progress in the pay negotiations.
- At the very least your notes should not discourage you in this aim.
- Fourth, the fund may lack the accounting systems and performance measurement techniques to incorporate futures, so discouraging their use.
- If this report that the army is planning a coup is serious, then the army must be discouraged from doing that.
- The air filled with the strong scent of herbs being burned to discourage elemental spirits.
- The complexities of scheduling thousands of students for individual courses discourage change.
- These things are not written under any feeling of discouragement, much less to discourage others.
Longman Language Activatorto make someone feel less confident► shake/damage (somebody's) confidence
Collocations if something shakes or damages someone's confidence , it makes them feel unsure of their abilities and less confident: · Being fired really shook his confidence.badly shaken: · Her confidence was badly shaken when she was involved in a car accident a few years ago.
► demoralizing making people feel that they cannot be successful at something they are trying to do, so that they become unwilling to continue with it: · the demoralizing effects of unemployment· Many of the teachers found the school board's criticism unfair and demoralizing.· Rivas says being on welfare was a demoralizing and humiliating experience.
► take the wind out of somebody's sails informal to make someone lose their confidence, especially by saying or doing something unexpected: · Last night's defeat has taken some of the wind out of the team's sails.
► discourage to make someone feel less confident about something they are trying to achieve: · What discouraged me most was our lack of progress in the pay negotiations.· Although the troubles in the financial markets have made him cautious, Reid said they haven't discouraged him.
► discouraging making someone feel less confident about something they are trying to achieve: · My father made a few discouraging remarks about my academic abilities that have stayed with me to this day.· Despite discouraging viewing figures for their movie "For the Boys", Paramount decided to try to make another similar film.be discouraging to do something: · It's very discouraging to find out that your own team members have been lying to you.discouraging that: · It is deeply discouraging that the government can struggle with the nation's budget for nearly a year and still fail to achieve anything.
to persuade someone not to do something► persuade somebody not to do something to make someone decide not to do something, by giving them reasons why they should not do it: · Catherine persuaded him not to resign.· The program hopes to persuade school children not to try smoking or drugs.
► talk somebody out of to talk to someone about something they are planning to do, and persuade them not to do it: talk somebody out of something: · I nearly cancelled the wedding, but my best friend talked me out of it.· Police officers talked a man out of a suicide jump off the bridge.talk somebody out of doing something: · Her father talked her out of studying history because he thought she would hate it.
► discourage to stop someone wanting to do something, by making them think that it will be difficult or unpleasant: · We need to discourage the use of cars for short journeys.· Leave the lights on when you're out in order to discourage burglars.discourage somebody from doing something: · Girls are sometimes discouraged from studying subjects like engineering and physics.
► put off informal to make someone lose interest in something that they want or were thinking of doing, by making it seem difficult or unpleasant: · I'm not going to be put off by his threats.put somebody off doing something: · A lot of people are put off becoming teachers by the long hours and the low pay.
► deter written to make someone decide not to do something by making them realize that it will be difficult or dangerous or will have unpleasant results: · The new alarm system should deter car thieves.deter somebody from doing something: · The unpleasant taste the drug produces is used to deter alcoholics from drinking.
to prevent someone from doing what they want to do► prevent to make it impossible for someone to do something that they want to do: prevent somebody from doing something: · A leg injury may prevent Shearer from playing in tomorrow's game.· There were reports that some people had been prevented from voting in the election.
► stop to stop someone from doing something that they want to do, especially by controlling them in an unreasonable way: · I've made up my mind to leave home, and you can't stop me.stop somebody (from) doing something: · My parents tried to stop me seeing Anne.· The government has taken legal action to stop the BBC from broadcasting a documentary about the Secret Service.
► keep somebody from doing something to prevent someone from doing something, especially something that might be harmful or upsetting: · Staying busy kept her from thinking about her illness.· It was all I could do to keep myself from hitting him.
► restrain to prevent someone from doing something harmful or stupid, either by physically stopping them or by persuading them not to do it: · Roger stepped forward and Martin put out his arm to restrain him.restrain yourself: · She wanted to ask him all about his private life, but wisely restrained herself.restrain somebody from doing something: · His arm was hurting him and he had to be restrained from doing too much.
► hold back to prevent someone or something from moving forward or making progress: hold back somebody/something: · The police had already erected crash barriers to hold back the advancing crowds.· The poor economic situation has held back investment in new technology.hold somebody/something back: · Bill leapt to his feet to go after the girl, but the others held him back.· She always felt that being a woman had held her back in her career.
► get in the way of to make someone too busy to do something else, especially something they should do: · Don't let your social life get in the way of your education.
► discourage to make it less likely that someone will do something, for example by showing them that it may have a bad or unwelcome result: · Higher taxes are likely to discourage investment.· It is a well known fact that a negative working environment discourages creativity.discourage somebody from doing something: · Higher cigarette prices do not seem to discourage people from smoking.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► actively
Word family· You certainly wasted studio time and resources, so one was actively discouraged.· In this day of the lawsuit, touching a student is often actively discouraged by school administrators.· On the contrary, some seemed to actively discourage it.· Contact between the different groups was actively discouraged.
► also· Leaving on an interior light as well during the night can also discourage a potential burglar.· Jobs also discourage accountability, because they reward people not for getting the necessary work done but for doing their jobs.· Regular watering will also discourage them.· The middle-class skills - such as public speaking - required to be an effective councillor may also discourage many manual workers.· Recessions cause firms to scrap equipment; they also discourage new investment, all the more so if interest rates are high.· It also discourages the opposition from closing him down. emailinc True, but they seemed pretty cohesive, and confident.
NOUN► company· Possible underpricing of its services, which could discourage competition from private companies.· All the Republicans except Buchanan support global free trade and oppose direct measures to discourage companies from moving manufacturing plants overseas.
► investment· These fluctuations can be very damaging to business confidence and may discourage long-term investment.· The Kemp Commission took the same position, saying those taxes discourage saving and investment.· Taxes on investment may discourage high-risk projects.· High interest rates lead to the following problems: They may discourage investment plans and hence long-term growth.· The aim of this is to avoid discouraging new investment, although the 10% share still represents an open-ended liability.· The farmers say that fear of being bought out will discourage future investment in their land.· Recessions cause firms to scrap equipment; they also discourage new investment, all the more so if interest rates are high.
► people· If we believed it would have an adverse effect on claims, we would discourage people from buying timber-frame.· We wanted very much to discourage people from porting their current applications over to the Macintosh.· This could discourage people from driving ten miles to buy their groceries.· But frankly, we try to discourage people from our business who are too interested in money.· The welfare system, runs this view, makes things worse because it discourages people from working and rewards undesirable behaviour.· Learning the codes discourages some people from attempting to type, he said.· It would impose taxes on business and individuals which would discourage enterprise and discourage people from trying to work hard.· It was a film in a series called Vanishing Peoples, which was discouraging.
► use· It is obvious that the relatively low price of high grade primary aggregates discourages efficient use of available resources and increases wastage.· Deductions would be eliminated in most cases to close loopholes and discourage the use of tax shelters.· Mr Bergg said the Liberal Democrates would discourage the use of cars as much as possible.· Fourth, the fund may lack the accounting systems and performance measurement techniques to incorporate futures, so discouraging their use.· A draft urged governments to tax up the price of tobacco to discourage its use.· Some recycling might be promoted by regulatory changes: building regulations, for example, often discourage the use of recycled materials.· I have discouraged the use of adjectives in the last two chapters but here you can see them used with superb skill.· The relative complexity of gastric crypt anatomy compared with colorectal mucosa has discouraged its use as an experimental model in proliferation research.
VERB► become· He becomes annoyed or discouraged if corrected too often.· Colin, on the other hand, became discouraged and let things slip.· Its official policy is anti-Western, and it obstructs aid organisations with so much red tape that they have become discouraged.· Unfortunately, after 11 years living here, I too am becoming discouraged.· After several unsuccessful efforts, they would become discouraged and often would begin to spit up.· As time passed, Mary and her husband become more and more discouraged and exhausted.· It matters little that the teacher exhorts; the unmotivated students become discouraged quickly, they quit, and become our failures.
► encourage· There is a separate question of whether free flows of long-term capital can be encouraged while discouraging some short-term capital movements.· Meetings around the water cooler are encouraged rather than discouraged.· It should unite rather than divide, encourage rather than discourage.
► try· I tried to discourage him, but in the end he became a little bit of a nuisance, you know?· The state Department of Agriculture tries to discourage the practice.· In the early days Busacher had tried to discourage him.· But frankly, we try to discourage people from our business who are too interested in money.· What do we do, them or try to discourage their supporters from voting?· But... try again without being discouraged...· Many teenagers today would live in their trainers, given half a chance, but try to discourage this.· Wesley tried to discourage his friend from going.
WORD FAMILYadjectiveencouraged ≠ discouragedencouraging ≠ discouragingnounencouragement ≠ discouragementverbencourage ≠ discourageadverbencouragingly ≠ discouragingly
1to persuade someone not to do something, especially by making it seem difficult or bad OPP encourage: attempts to discourage illegal immigrationdiscourage somebody from doing something My father is a lawyer, and he discouraged me from entering the field.GRAMMARYou say: · She discouraged me from going. ✗Don’t say: She discouraged me to go.Grammar guide ‒ VERBS2to make someone less confident or less willing to do something SYN demoralize OPP encourage: You should not let one failure discourage you.3to make something less likely to happen OPP encourage: Aspirin may discourage tumour growth in some types of cancer.