crestfallen

WOTD – 3 November 2006

English [edit]

From crest +‎ fallen, from the appearance of a horse and its position of head on its crest (chest) after defeat in a battle

(UK): IPA: /ˈkrɛstfɔːlən/, X-SAMPA: /"krEstfO:l@n/
(US): IPA: /ˈkrɛstfɔlən/, X-SAMPA: /"krEstfOl@n/
(cot-caught merger, Northern Cities Vowel Shift): IPA: /ˈkrɛstfɑlən/, X-SAMPA: /"krEstfAl@n/

Audio (US cot-caught merged)

crestfallen (comparative more crestfallen, superlative most crestfallen)

Sad because of a recent disappointment.
Depressed.
(obsolete, of a horse) Having the crest, or upper part of the neck, hanging to one side.

					1876 1887 1897	1908 1946	2010
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

1876 — Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, ch. XII

Tom's cheeks burned. He gathered himself up and sneaked off, crushed and crestfallen.
1887 — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, ch. VI

"'...You remember the hat beside the dead man?'
'Yes,' said Holmes; 'by John Underwood and Sons, 129, Camberwell Road.'
Gregson looked quite crestfallen.
'I had no idea that you noticed that,'he said. "Have you been there?'
'No.'"
1897 — H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man, ch. 12

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.
1908 — Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, ch. 6

'He did it awfully well,' said the crestfallen Rat.
1946 — Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 15

I rushed there; no lamp! Crestfallen, I returned to my guru.
2010 — Pseudonymous Bosch, This Isn't What It Looks Like, ch. -3

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.

sad because of a recent disappointment

depressed