DISPLEASE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does displease mean? 

• DISPLEASE (verb)
  The verb DISPLEASE has 1 sense:

1. give displeasure to

  Familiarity information: DISPLEASE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISPLEASE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they displease    ... he / she / it displeases   
Past simple: displeased   
Past participle: displeased   
-ing form: displeasing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give displeasure to

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Cause:

dislike (have or feel a dislike or distaste for)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "displease"):

annoy; bother; chafe; devil; get at; get to; gravel; irritate; nark; nettle; rag; rile; vex (cause annoyance in; disturb, especially by minor irritations)

repel; repulse (be repellent to; cause aversion in)

dissatisfy (fail to satisfy)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

The bad news will displease him
The performance is likely to displease Sue

Antonym:

please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

Derivation:

displeasure (the feeling of being displeased or annoyed or dissatisfied with someone or something)

 Context examples 

What had I been saying to displease you?

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She gives it me, not displeased; and I put it to my lips, and then into my breast.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He begged pardon for having displeased her.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It was painful to her to disappoint and displease them, particularly to displease her brother; but she could not repent her resistance.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I am not sure, but I think it was because his son, Laurie's father, married an Italian lady, a musician, which displeased the old man, who is very proud.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I have refused to marry him—"And have consequently displeased him?" she suggested.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was no being displeased with such an encourager, for his admiration made him discern a likeness almost before it was possible.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I begged “his honour would please to excuse me from proceeding any further, because I was very certain that the account he expected from me would be highly displeasing.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

'Boys,' said I, 'here's Flint's treasure; let's land and find it.' The cap'n was displeased at that, but my messmates were all of a mind and landed.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

"They had already spent a week in this manner in Conduit Street, and Lady Middleton could not be displeased at their giving the same number of days to such near relations."

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)