crestfallen
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈkɹɛstfɔːlən/
ipa: /ˈkɹɛstfɔlən/
ipa: /ˈkɹɛstfɑlən/
Forms: form: more crestfallen
form: most crestfallen
Etymology: From crest + fallen, from the appearance of a horse with its crest (head) on its chest after defeat in a battle.
Senses: examples: text: Tom's cheeks burned. He gathered himself up and sneaked off, crushed and crestfallen.
ref: 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XII, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 112:
text: Gregson looked quite crest-fallen.
ref: 1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter VI (Tobias Gregson shows What He Can Do), page 38:
text: Hall tried to convey everything by grimaces and dumb show, but Mrs. Hall was obdurate. She raised her voice. So Hall and Henfrey, rather crestfallen, tiptoed back to the bar, gesticulating to explain to her.
ref: 1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 12, in The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance, New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
text: 'He did it awfully well,' said the crestfallen Rat.
ref: 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, chapter 6, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:
text: I rushed there; no lamp! Crestfallen, I returned to my guru.
ref: 1946, Paramahansa Yogananda, chapter 15, in Autobiography of a Yogi:
text: And we can sense that, though permanently crestfallen, there is something in his nature, which makes him accept solitude, that is rather fearless.
ref: 1995, Roger Lewis, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, page 743:
text: Yes, unfortunately, she'd heard him correctly. She was crestfallen. Here she'd come so far to ask him the question, and he didn't know the answer.
ref: 2010, Pseudonymous Bosch, chapter 3, in This Isn't What It Looks Like:
text: Brother Gáeth was a tall man with almost ugly features and a permanently crestfallen expression that made the elderly abbot immediately feel guilty that he had spoken so roughly.
ref: 2011, Peter Tremayne, The Chalice of Blood: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland, page 9:
text: Diniz was a dark man who seemed closed in on himself, always crestfallen, walking along the walls and corners, answering questions with monosyllables and whispered sounds.
ref: 2015, Alda de Jesus Oliveira, The PONTES Approach to Music Education: Learning to Reach Out:
text: He had short, dark hair, liberally flecked with silver-grey strands, heavily lidded brown eyes and a mouth that turned down at the edges, giving him a permanently crestfallen expression.
ref: 2021, James Bowring, Down in the Country: A Carlow Valley Mystery:
glosses: Sad because of a disappointment.
glosses: Having the crest, or upper part of the neck, hanging to one side.
raw_tags: of a horse
Synonyms: sense: sad because of a recent disappointment
word: disappointed
sense: sad because of a recent disappointment
word: disillusioned
sense: depressed
word: blue
sense: depressed
word: dejected
sense: depressed
word: despondent
sense: depressed
word: depressed
sense: depressed
word: downcast
sense: depressed
word: down in the dumps
sense: depressed
word: sorrowful
Derived terms: crest-fall
crestfallenly
crestfallenness