Library / English Dictionary

DEPLORE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Express strong disapproval of

Example:

We deplore the government's treatment of political prisoners

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "deplore" is one way to...):

criticise; criticize; knock; pick apart (find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws)

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

accurse; anathematise; anathematize; anathemise; anathemize; comminate; execrate (curse or declare to be evil or anathema or threaten with divine punishment)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Regret strongly

Example:

we lamented the loss of benefits

Synonyms:

bemoan; bewail; deplore; lament

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "deplore" is one way to...):

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off (express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They deplore that there was a traffic accident

Credits

 Context examples: 

Differences between relations are much to be deplored—but they are extremely general—and the great thing is, to be on the right side: meaning, I take it, on the side of the moneyed interest.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She thanked him in the most ardent terms for his intended services towards her parent, and at the same time she gently deplored her own fate.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

His letters expressed how much he deplored it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

There he had seen everything to exalt in his estimation the woman he had lost; and there begun to deplore the pride, the folly, the madness of resentment, which had kept him from trying to regain her when thrown in his way.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

And very much to be deplored it was, on all accounts!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

As to deploring her misfortunes, she appeared to have entirely lost the recollection of ever having had any.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)