The phrase "a certain dismay" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to express a specific but not fully defined feeling of disappointment or concern about a situation.
Example: "She looked at the results with a certain dismay, realizing that her efforts had not paid off."
Alternatives: "a degree of dismay" or "somewhat dismayed".
How progressive, I thought, albeit with a certain dismay, and I went off looking for something less rational and frictionless.
Some members of the PEN board will privately express a certain dismay about the way Begley conducts meetings; he is a world-class negotiator in a hurry.
As she said this, a certain dismay crept into her voice, like toxic waste seeping from a 55-gallon steel drum.
When the novel was published in 1963, it excited a certain dismay in Britain and the United States, for here was Western intelligence acting with the same deviousness as the enemy — if anything with greater deviousness.
When the novel was published in 1963, it excited a certain dismay in Britain and the United States, for here was Western intelligence acting with the same deviousness as the enemy if anything with greater deviousness.
After the meeting, Mr Prodi admitted to "a certain dismay" that more had not been achieved.The British, traditionally the bad boys of European summits, achieved their main goals of preventing a move to majority voting on taxation and social-security issues, and of preventing a new charter of European rights from having legal force (see article).
The future is advertising in your books, to the outward dismay of most readers, and certain dismay of publishers, whose standard contracts with authors include a guarantee not to run adverts against their works.
And he's retiring from his post at the museum with a certain sense of dismay.
It is as though the government, having stamped its feet to make sure that everyone went to a certain restaurant, was dismayed to find that the things it liked weren't on the menu.
It was believed to be the first time kidnappers had seized a foreigner in the capital, El Fasher, a development certain to dismay aid officials in Darfur who have pulled staff back to the main towns to escape a wave of abductions in remote locations.
Throughout the competition, the cameras that had lingered lovingly on Korbut in Munich now seemed to take a certain pleasure in showing her dismay at her slips and mistakes.
