What does deject mean?
To deject someone is to make them feel sad, dispirited, or low in spirits — to cast them down emotionally. The word comes from the Latin deicere, 'to throw down,' and it preserves that physical image of being knocked from an upright, cheerful posture into one of gloom. In contemporary usage the verb itself is fairly rare and carries a formal, literary tone; it survives most often in its participial adjective form, 'dejected,' as in 'a dejected expression' or 'she felt dejected after the loss,' and in the related noun 'dejection.' Because it is understood across the English-speaking world but not overused, it lends writing a slightly elevated register without sounding archaic. Writers reach for it when they want a precise, dignified way to describe discouragement that goes beyond momentary disappointment — a settled heaviness of spirit rather than a fleeting bad mood.
verbTo make someone feel sad, dispirited, or low in spirits; to cast down the spirits of.
- To make (someone) sad or dispirited; to lower the spirits of — now used almost exclusively in the passive or past participle form 'dejected'.
"The team's third consecutive defeat dejected even their most loyal supporters."
"She was deeply dejected by the harsh criticism of her manuscript."
"The grey, rain-soaked afternoon seemed designed to deject the holidaymakers."
When you're 'downcast,' you're literally echoing the Latin: 'deject' comes from deicere, meaning 'to throw down.'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of deject
Deject derives from the Latin deicere ('to throw down'), formed from the prefix de- ('down') and iacere ('to throw'), with the past participle deiectus supplying the English stem. The word entered English in the late sixteenth century, first appearing both as an adjective meaning 'cast down in spirits' and shortly afterwards as a verb. It shares its Latin root with a whole family of 'throwing' words borrowed around the same era, including eject, inject, project, reject, and trajectory.
Related word forms
How deject is actually used
The active verb is formal and somewhat literary in modern English; the adjective 'dejected' and noun 'dejection' are far more common. In everyday speech, words like 'dishearten' or 'get down' are more typical.
Easily confused with deject
'Reject' means to refuse or dismiss something, while 'deject' means to lower someone's spirits — the two share a root but differ in meaning.