- despondent
- despondent adj Despondent, despairing, desperate, hopeless, forlorn mean having lost all or practically all hope. The same distinctions in implications and connotations are to be found in their corresponding nouns despondency, despair, desperation, hopelessness, forlornness when they denote the state or feeling of a person who has lost hope.Despondent and despondency imply disheartenment or deep dejection arising out of a conviction that there is no longer any justification of hope or that further efforts are useless{
a despondent lover
}{whenever . . . the repressed spirit of the artist. . . perceived . . . the full extent of its debacle, Mark Twain was filled with a despondent desire, a momentary purpose even, to stop writing altogether— Brooks
}{we poets in our youth begin in gladness; but thereof come in the end despondency and madness— Wordsworth
}{England, they said, was wont to take her defeats without despondency, and her victories without elation— Repplier
}Despairing and despair imply sometimes the passing of hope, sometimes the utter loss of hope, and often accompanying despondency{the author . . . ended with a despairing appeal to the democracy when his jeremiads evoked no response from the upper class . . . or from the middle class— Inge
}{to fortify ourselves against the ultimate disaster—which is despair— Times Lit. Sup.
}{despair of her ever understanding either the terms of a contract or the nature of working conditions— Mary Austin
}{the bitter weariness of a fathomless resignation and despair— Wolfe
}Desperate and desperation imply despair but not the cessation of effort; rather, they often suggest violence and recklessness as a last resource especially in the face of anticipated defeat or frustration{the bitter, desperate striving unto death of the oppressed race, the damned desperation of the rebel— Rose Macaulay
}{a desperate determination that nothing should interfere with her marriage with Hugh had taken possession of her— Anderson
}{he was fighting a fight of desperation, and knew it— Meredith
}{not knowing . . . how near my pursuer might be, I turned in desperation to meet him— Hudson
}Hopeless and hopelessness imply both the complete loss of hope and the cessation of effort{the hopeless look in the faces of the doomed men
}The words do not necessarily suggest despondency, dejection, or gloom, for sometimes they imply acceptance or resignation{"Why should you say such desperate things?" "No, they are not desperate. They are only hopeless"—Hardy
}{not that Dr. Lavendar was hopeless; he was never hopeless of anybody... but he was wise; so he was deeply discouraged— Deland
}{the little hopeless community of beaten men and yellow defeated women— Anderson
}Forlorn (see also ALONE 1) and forlornness stress utter hopelessness, but they differ from hopeless and hopelessness in implying hopelessness even in the act of undertaking something because its failure is all but certain{[we] sit down in a forlorn skepticism— Berkeley
}{poor prince, forlorn he steps . . . and proud in his despair— Keats
}Desperate, hopeless, and forlorn and their corresponding nouns are applicable not only to men, their moods, words, and acts, but to the things which make men despairing or hopeless{1desperate straits
}{the hopeless situation of a beleaguered garrison
}{desperate grime and greasiness— McFee
}{all the high ardor and imaginative force which the Celt has ever thrown into a forlorn and failing cause— Cyril Robinson
}Analogous words: grieving, mourning, sorrowing (see GRIEVE): depressed, dejected, melancholy, sad (see corresponding nouns at SADNESS)Antonyms: lighthearted
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
