To displease means to cause someone to feel annoyed, disappointed, or unhappy. When you displease your parents, you might do something that goes against their wishes or expectations, like forgetting an important chore or breaking a promise. When a restaurant displeases its customers with slow service or cold food, those customers leave feeling frustrated.

The word often appears in situations where someone has let another person down or failed to meet their standards. A teacher might be displeased by students talking during a lesson. A coach might be displeased when the team doesn't practice seriously. Notice that displease suggests more than just a minor irritation: it usually means someone feels genuinely let down or bothered by what happened.

The opposite of displease is please, so when you displease someone, you're doing the reverse of making them happy. You might hear someone say, “I hope this doesn't displease you,” when they're worried their decision might upset another person. While we all inevitably displease people sometimes, people often try to respond by apologizing sincerely and trying to do better next time.