defeatist
pronunciation
How to pronounce defeatist in British English:
UK [dɪˈfiːtɪst]
How to pronounce defeatist in American English:
US [ dɪˈfiːtɪst]
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- Noun:
- someone who is resigned to defeat
Word Origin
- defeatist
- 1918, adjective and noun, in reference to pacifists and political opposition in Britain, from French défaitiste, which was used there in reference to the Russians who sought to end their war with Germany; see defeat (n.) + -ist. Their opposition, in the original Russian context, were called defensists.
Example
- 1. I don 't approve of your defeatist attitude .
- 2. Yet the notion that change is impossible is not just defeatist but also wrong .
- 3. Yet francis pym was no defeatist : he had served in italy and north africa , winning the military cross .
- 4. I never once saw your father with a defeatist attitude , I never saw him petty .
- 5. In the * * ce of this defeatist mentality , the pope argues that the chapters of evangelium vitae addressing the relationship between the civil law and the moral law " deserve great attention because of the growing importance they are destined to have in the restoration of social life "