daunting

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Discouraging

   Discouraging; inspiring fear.

   • 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.
2. 2

   Intimidatingly impressive

   Intimidatingly impressive; awe-inspiring, overwhelming.

3. 3

   Appearing to be difficult

   Appearing to be difficult; challenging.

   • It was a daunting task, but it was accomplished with some forward planning.
   • 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.
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      gerund of daunt.

      • 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.
   2. 5

      present participle and gerund of daunt

The neighborhood

• neighbordaunt
• neighbordauntedly
• neighbordaunter
• neighbordauntless
• neighbordauntlessly
• neighborundauntable
• neighborundaunted
• neighborundauntedly
• neighborundauntedness