spiritnoun
He refuses to let his illness dampen his spirits.
We tried not to let the news dampen our spirits as we continued with our Christmas preparations.
The negative reaction of the reviewers really dampened her spirits.
The rise in interest rates has done little to dampen the spirits of property investors.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Discouraging and putting off
aversive
dampen someone's enthusiasm
dampener on something
daunt
daunting
deterrence
deterrent
discourage
discouragement
discouraging
disheartening
dishearteningly
disincentive
emasculate
emasculation
pour/throw cold water on somethingidiom
spoke
take the wind out of someone's sailsidiom
throw cold water on somethingidiom
unencouraging