verb (used with object)
- to depress the spirits of; dispirit; dishearten: Such news dejects me.
adjective
- Archaic. dejected; downcast.
verb
- (tr) to have a depressing effect on; dispirit; dishearten
adjective
- archaic downcast; dejected
early 15c., “to throw or cast down,” from Old French dejeter (12c.), from Latin deiectus “a throwing down, felling, fall,” past participle of deicere “to cast down, destroy; drive out; kill, slay, defeat,” from de- “down” + -icere, comb. form of iacere “to throw” (see jet (v.)). Originally literal; the sense of “depress in spirit” is c.1500.