dashed hope
1
5.0
- noun
- Informal
:
esperanza frustrada
- The team's injuries dashed hope for a championship this season.
- moments of dashed hope
Examples
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In recent months, Americans have been buffeted by a series of unseen challenges that have repeatedly dashed hopes for a sustained economic recovery and the resumption of hiring, from the tsunami in Japan to rising oil prices.
Blog text (14) -
And we here in Israel, who had no vote in these elections, shared in the dashed hopes.
Blog text (26) -
It's all about disappointment, dashed hopes, hard luck.
-
Still nursing wounded pride and dashed hopes as our team falls from number one in the nation...
Blog text (22) -
Expressions of disappointment, devastation, and dashed hopes.
Blog text (13) -
The increase has dashed hopes that lower home-loan costs might entice more Americans to overcome their fear of falling prices and buy homes.
Blog text (31) -
At the end of the 1960s, the Olompali commune rose and fell along with the dramatic arc of high expectations and dashed hopes of the hippie era.
Academic text (2009) -
While it is true that Kefaya is now at a crossroads, perhaps in need of new creative means for action, it is equally true that the lost momentum is a result of the dashed hopes of Egyptians who wanted to believe in the elusive promise of reform that opened in 2005.
Academic text (2007) -
However, a persistent minority of student teachers reported serious dissatisfaction with the practicum, sometimes recounting stories of unreasonable demands, insufficient guidance, dashed hopes, and use and abuse by cooperating teachers.
Academic text (2005) -
Many students felt a sense of dashed hope after learning that their favorite class would be canceled.
Synonyms
223
1.7
A feeling of sadness or being let down when something you wanted does not happen
27
3.4
A feeling of disappointment when something is not as good as you expected
2
4.6
A hope or plan for the future that is no longer possible
Antonyms
How Realistic
38
4.5
209
2.8
- Informal
1
5.0
- Informal
1
8.1
199
6.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a hope that has been destroyed or disappointed' is directly and compositionally derived from 'dash' (to abruptly destroy or ruin) + 'hope', with the past participle 'dashed' functioning adjectivally to describe the affected hope. This is a common, cross-linguistic adjectival-past-participle + noun pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Dashed hope comes from an old meaning of dash, 'to strike' or 'to break'. Imagine a plan with a quick hard line through it or a small boat hit by a wave, and that image of something smashed explains why dashed hope means a hope that is 'destroyed' or 'disappointed'.