''chagrin'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260708144405-00-⌔

chagrin - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

chagrin (countable and uncountable, plural chagrins)

• A distress of mind caused by a failure of aims or plans, a want of appreciation, mistakes, etc.; vexation or mortification.
  • ✤ Synonyms: disquiet, fretfulness, mortification, peevishness, vexation
  • ✤ much to the chagrin (of)
  • ✤ [H]e alone knew how deep was the deluded man’s chagrin at the failure of the little plot which he fancied was prospering finely.¹
  • ✤ “Mrs. Yule’s chagrin and horror at what she called her son’s base ingratitude knew no bounds; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […]”²
  • ✤ I was like that, not in a state of fury but of sadness, when your letter arrived. I began to read it, with the pleasure one feels on hearing oneself attacked by somebody one likes. But when I reached the passage about the ‘sadism’ and ‘demonicalness’ of my persecution of you, my chagrin couldn’t hold out, and gaiety broke through.³
  • ✤ And even though their numbers have been halved—that’s the unofficial tally given in one of the strategy sessions—everyone from Sansa to Daenerys to Varys is wondering who is going to rule over which pile of smoking ruins. That’s when the campaigning begins, much to Jon and Dany’s chagrin.⁴
• A type of leather or skin with a rough surface.⁵
  • ✤ Synonym: shagreen

Verb

chagrin (third-person singular simple present chagrins, present participle chagrining, simple past and past participle chagrined)

• (transitive) To bother or vex; to mortify.
  • ✤ But since this Infidel Minister knows the folly of these Brags; which he sees destroy’d by the Relations Printed in other Countries: They serve only, for a Subject to augment his Pride; and gives him a Pleasure, the mor to Chagrine and Mortifie the French Ambassador.⁶
  • ✤ […] though you send at any Time, and even received an unmannerly Answer, do not let a rash Pride drive you to return the Affront, since it is impossible for you to know what at that Instant had chagrin’d their Temper.⁷
  • ✤ But friends and fav’rites, to chagrin them,⁸
  • ✤ He felt pretty sure that, if this interview took place, his mother’s account of what passed at it would only annoy and chagrin him, though he would all the time be aware of the colouring which it received by passing through her mind.⁹
  • ✤ She would go on like that for hours, connecting one offense to another until all of the things that chagrined her were spewed out.¹⁰
• ✤ Find counties, countries, seas, between them:
• ✤ Meet once a year, then part, and then
• ✤ Retiring, wish to meet again.
• (reflexive, obsolete, rare) To be vexed or annoyed.
  • ✤ Dear Ma’am, why will you chagrine yourself about a vile Man, that is not worth,—no, as I live and breathe,—not worth a single Sigh?—¹¹

Adjective

chagrin (comparative more chagrin, superlative most chagrin)

• (obsolete) Feeling chagrin; annoyed; vexed, fretful. [17${}^{th}$ to 18${}^{th}$ centuries.]¹²
  • ✤ Synonym: chagrined
  • ✤ Dear, my dear, pity me; I am so chagrin to day, and have had the most signal affront at Court!¹³
  • ✤ […] instead of rejoycing at this Prosperity of his Family, which a true Father of his Children would have esteem’d his own, a Spirit of Envy and Discontent seized him, and he went away chagrine and melancholy.¹⁴
  • ✤ I wou’d not have your ladyship chagrin at my bride’s expression […]¹⁵
  • ✤ All pensive, heartless, and chagrine
    I sit, devoted prey to spleen;¹⁶

Etymology

From French chagrin (“sorrow”), from Middle French chagrin (“pain, affliction”) (compare Middle French chagriner, chagrigner (“to experience sorrow”), Old French chagrin (“painful, afflicted”)), probably derived from Old Northern French chagreiner, chagraigner (“to sadden”),¹⁷ of uncertain origin. Likely an enlargement of Old French greignier, graignier (“to cringe, growl, be sullen, be angry, grieve over”),¹⁸ from Old French graigne (“sadness, resentment, grief”), from graim (“sorrowful”), related to Old High German gram (“furious, gloomy, grieved”).¹⁹ The initial syllable is obscure. It may represent Old French chat (“cat”) to express the idea of “lamenting or yowling like cats” (compare German Katzenjammer (“distress, frustration, depression, chagrin”, literally “cat-wailing, cat-misery”), katzbalgen (“to cat-fight”)).²⁰

An alternative theory is that it came from a metaphorical use of French chagrin, (peau de) chagrain (“a type of roughened leather”),²¹ with the connection of roughness, though some dictionaries consider this to be a separate word derived from Old French peau de sagrin, from Ottoman Turkish [script needed] (sağrı, “the rump of an animal, skin for tawing”). The alteration of initial s to ch is likely due to influence from chagrin meaning “sorrow”.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: shə-grĭn’, IPA: /ˈʃaɡ.ɹɪn/
  • ✤ Hyphenation: chag‧rin
  • ✤ Rhymes: -æɡɹɪn
• (General American) enPR: shă’grĭn, IPA: /ʃəˈɡɹɪn/

📊 ➺

• ✤ Hyphenation: cha‧grin
• ✤ Rhymes: -ɪn
• (obsolete) enPR: shə-grēn’, shă-grēn’, IPA: /ʃæˈɡɹiːn/, /ʃəˈɡɹiːn/²²
• Audio (Australian): 🔊

Printed 2026-07-08.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1876, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 8, in Rose In Bloom: ↩

2. 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020: ↩

3. 1983, Robert de Montesquiou, translated by Terence Kilmartin, “From Robert de Montesquiou, around 8 July 1915”, in Philip Kolb, editor, Marcel Proust, Selected Letters, volume 3 (1910–1917), London: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, pages 317–318: ↩

4. 2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club ‎${}^{[2]}$, archived from the original on 28 January 2021: ↩

5. “chagrin”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. ↩

6. 1683, Richard Tonson, Jacob Tonson, translated by Daniel Defoe, An Account of Monsieur De Quesne’s Late Expedition at Chio ‎${}^{[3]}$, London, page 50: ↩

7. 1748, Laetitia Pilkington, Memoirs ‎${}^{[4]}$, volume 3, Dublin, page 75: ↩

8. 1764, William Shenstone, “The Progress of Taste,” Part I, in The Works in Verse and Prose of William Shenstone, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Volume I, p. 265,${}^{[5]}$ ↩

9. 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 40, in North and South ‎${}^{[6]}$: ↩

10. 1970, Toni Morrison, “Autumn”, in The Bluest Eye ‎${}^{[7]}$, New York: Pocket Books, published 1972, page 23: ↩

11. 1760, Arthur Murphy, The Way to Keep Him ‎${}^{[8]}$, London: P. Vaillant, act I, scene 1, page 8: ↩

12. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, London: W. Hawes et al., 1699.${}^{[1]}$ ↩

13. 1673, John Dryden, Marriage a-la-mode ‎${}^{[9]}$, London: Henry Herringman, act III, scene 1, page 33: ↩

14. 1718, Daniel Defoe, The Family Instructor ‎${}^{[10]}$, London: Emanuel Matthews, Volume 2, Dialogue 5, p. 390: ↩

15. 1728, Henry Fielding, Love in Several Masques, Act V, Scene 3, in The Works of Henry Fielding, Esq, London: W. Strahan et al., 1784, Volume I, p. 174,${}^{[11]}$ ↩

16. 1758, “Captain T-of BATTEREAU’s Regiment in the Isle of SKIE to Captain P- at Fort AUGUSTUS”, in Robert Dodsley, editor, A Collection of Poems in Six Volumes ‎${}^{[12]}$, London: R. & J. Dodsley, page 243: ↩

17. Etymology and history of “chagrin”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 ↩

18. Etymology and history of “grigner”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 ↩

19. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/chagrin?s=t ↩

20. Etymology and history of “chagriner”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 ↩

21. https://web.archive.org/web/20160304223126/http://triggs.djvu.org/century-dictionary.com/cent2jpgframes.php?volno=02&page=0909 ↩

22. Walker, John (1791), “Chagrin”, in *A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary […] *, London: G. G. J. and J. Robinſon […] and T. Cadell, →OCLC, page 135, column 3 of 3. ↩