Pronunciations (4)
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/ˈdɔːntɪŋ/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈdɔntɪŋ/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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ˈdɔːntɪŋ
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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ˈdɔntɪŋ
Pronunciation notes
- US
Adjective
Discouraging; inspiring fear.
- Antonyms
- Examples
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More examples (3)
Deathes daunting dart where so his buffet lights, / Shall shape no change within my friendly corse: / But dead or liue, in heauen, in earth, in hell, / I wilbe thine where so my carkase dwell.
As for his menacing and daunting threats / I nill regard him nor his Daniſh power: / For if he come to fetch her forth my Realme, / I will prouide him ſuch a banquet here.
Temp[est]. [...] Emily is for ever giggling. / Sir D[avid] D[aw]. She is not singular in that: go where I will, they giggle; that is rather daunting, you must think.
Abd-ool-Azeez gave the stranger a daunting look, but coolly proceeded.
More examples (2)
Instead of a single tap, [...] it became a hurried knocking, moving round the room behind the wainscot as if in search of something. I could have sworn that Someone or Something was feeling its way along. The daunting sounds arrived at the middle of the wall opposite the foot of the great bed, and became stationary.
Curiously, though we are exceedingly frank talkers in the United States on what may be called the static aspects of sex life—physiology hygiene and economics, all its experiential love is hedged about with conventional inhibitions, the most daunting of which is the convention that bars reforming intimacies between young men and older women.
Intimidatingly impressive; awe-inspiring, overwhelming.
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
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More examples (2)
[W]iſdome, much more all the excellencies of this Spirit) makes a mans face to ſhine; as the light of a Lanterne puts a luſtre upon the Lanterne, ſo the brightneſſe of theſe ſpirits puts a luſtre upon the men in whom they are. Men of ſuch ſpirts^([sic – meaning ſpirits]) as theſe are, have a daunting preſence in the eyes of thoſe who behold them.
She reached it soon after half-past two. She found its gloomy nineteenth-century façade, black with the smuts of ninety years, a little daunting, and mounted its broad steps in some trepidation. But she rang the bell hard and knocked firmly.
Appearing to be difficult; challenging.
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- Antonyms
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It was a daunting task, but it was accomplished with some forward planning.
More examples (4)
A trip of sixteen miles, through dark forests, in which they would not pass a single house, was an exploit sufficiently daunting for two such young and inexperienced boys. Love triumphs over fear and death; and these boys so dearly loved their father, that nothing was formidable to them, which they could do for him.
But there are tens of thousands more in England, young and old, who read even their own tongue only haltingly: to them Latin is as daunting as Magyar is to the rest of us.
In some ways it's more daunting to write a nonfiction work than fiction because if you write a fictional work, you can keep the reader in suspense as to whether the central figure is a hero or a villain. But if you're writing nonfiction, everyone knows how it turned out, so you have a problem of creating drama and suspense.
[B]umping up the percentage of the population committed to a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle from the low single digits into the high double digits is going to be a daunting task. [...] When more than 95 percent of the population eats meat, that's a daunting difference.
Noun
gerund of daunt. The act of discouraging or intimidating; discouragement, intimidation.
- Examples
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More examples (2)
Face to face with the true mountains, / I stood silently and still; / Drawing strength for fancy's dauntings, / From the air about the hill, / And from Nature's open mercies, and most debonaire goodwill.
But stigmatise it as we please there never was a great man without a strong will, and an infusion of self-reliance sufficient to raise him above the dauntings of opposition and reliance on props.
gerund of daunt. The act of defeating, overcoming, or overwhelming.
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More examples (1)
Then came in two by two, other Troopes, whoſe onſets, and ouer-throwes, honours, and diſgraces, darings, and dauntings, merit an ample Chronicle, rather than an Abſtract; [...]
Adjective
discouraging through fear
- Synonyms