【Discourage】 , 【dishearten】 , 【dispirit】 , 【deject】  mean to weaken in qualities that maintain interest, zeal, activity, or power to continue or to resist.

【Discourage】  implies not only the loss of courage and confidence but the entrance of fear and the marked diminution of all power to summon up one′s forces.

【Dishearten】 differs little from 【discourage】 , but it stresses not so much a mood or a state of mind as a loss of heart or will to accomplish a purpose or to achieve an end.

【Dispirit】 distinctively implies the loss of cheerfulness or hopefulness; it often suggests a prevailing gloom that casts a blight upon a gathering, a project, or whatever depends for its success upon the spirits of those who enter into it.

It may also, more strongly than 【discourage】 , suggest the way an individual or group affects others.

【Deject】 , even more strongly than 【dispirit】 , implies a casting down, with resulting loss of cheerfulness or hopefulness, but, unlike 【dispirit】 , it refers usually to the individual alone.