pessimist
Americannoun
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a person who habitually sees or anticipates the worst or is disposed to be gloomy.
-
an adherent of the doctrine of pessimism.
Etymology
Origin of pessimist
First recorded in 1830–40; pessim(ism) + -ist
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
No wonder that in a nation of pessimists, they are the optimists.
They feel the same forces as the pessimists—housing and grocery prices are rising for many of them, too.
And the pessimists fear entry-level knowledge workers will become obsolete altogether.
She has defied pessimists to be a hit with voters, especially young ones, with fans lapping up everything from her handbag to her jamming to a K-pop song with South Korea's president.
From Barron's
One I heard while working as a journalist in Moscow in the early 1980s: “A pessimist is a well-informed optimist.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
