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Definition
a disappointing decline in excitement or interest relative to a previous rise or expectations- the anticlimax of a brilliant career
- Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven — a national figure in a way, one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty-one that everything afterward savors of anti-climax.F. Scott Fitzgerald -- The Great Gatsby
- When Eliza, Lindsay, and I all finally stood up to walk to the ambulance to get bandaged up, the crowd stood and gave us a standing O. We went on to win the game big, but my topple made everything else anticlimactic.Sarah Dessen -- Dreamland
- God, that would be anticlimactic.Rainbow Rowell -- Eleanor & Park
- He had done all that he. had wished to do, and to drag out a pointless life on this empty world would hive been unbearable anticlimax.Arthur C. Clarke -- Childhood's End
- It was thought an anticlimax, showing lack of appreciation of the night's feelings, that Gabriella came straight back.Eudora Welty -- The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
- Isabel stared back at her; the announcement was an anticlimax.Henry James -- The Portrait of a Lady - Volumes 1 & 2
- By the time Leila persuaded him to give her a go at the controls, it was kind of anticlimactic.Roger Zelazny -- My Name is Legion
- Running away from home would be anticlimactic after Mexico, and a dull story after my month in the car lot.Maya Angelou -- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- BRADY'S vanity and cussedness won't let him give up, even though he realizes this is a sputtering anticlimax.Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee -- Inherit the Wind
- A siege would be a miserable anticlimax.Richard Adams -- Watership Down
- But that seems kind of dismal and anticlimactic (there you go, Miss Tyler, my new vocabulary word for the day—and it means something like a letdown).Melody Carlson -- Becoming Me
- If so, it struck me as absurdly anticlimactic; I didn't want it to end in small talk, but I couldn't think of anything else to say.Nicholas Sparks -- Dear John
- Isabel stared back at her; the announcement was an anticlimax.Henry James -- The Portrait of a Lady - Volume 2
- Scarlett trailed after him, somewhat at a loss, a trifle disappointed as at an unexpected anticlimax.Margaret Mitchell -- Gone with the Wind
- After the fun break with the Shelby County Drunk Four, the rest of the walk to Governor Wallace's headquarters was anticlimactic.Peter Jenkins -- A Walk Across America
- Leaving was anticlimactic.Christina Baker Kline -- Orphan Train
- Paralyzing in its brutal suddenness, it was the ultimate anticlimax for the white race.Russell Baker -- Growing Up
- No, now it's completely anticlimactic," he grumbled.Sarah Dessen -- This Lullaby
- Mrs. Prkchard could not stand an anticlimax.Flannery O'Connor -- A Good Man is Hard to Find AND OTHER STORIES
anti-climax = a disappointing decline in excitement or interest relative to the past
anticlimactic = a decline in excitement or interest relative to a what was previous