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Chris -- 2018-04-11
The midnight news quoted a worker from Windsor, Ontario, where the GM plant is closing. He said that the entire city was in dismay. Is this a legitimate idiom? I’ve not encountered it before. Or is it a blend between dismayed and in disarray? Dismay is listed in the dictionaries as both verb and noun. Still, disappointment is a noun and we don’t say, “The city was in disappointment.”
New Age blog
As the economy is in dismay, Obama’s healthcare plan may seem overwhelming and one that might be temporarily pushed to end of the “to-do†list
New music economy
You all know the stats, the music industry is in dismay. CD sales continue to slip and digital revenues are not coming close to compensating.
Walken for President
Now, more active than ever, Christopher Walken has realized that the state of his country is in dismay, and the politicians in charge care less for the citizens they serve and more about fattening their resumes and campaign chests.
18 pages of Google hits for “is in dismay”.
Edit: As ever, the human tragedy behind the original example has to be abstracted from the language at issue! I’m not immune to their distress.
Last edited by David Bird (2010-07-29 02:24:25)
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