Lexic.us

Definition of Despair

1. Verb. Abandon hope; give up hope; lose heart. "Sam and Sue despair over the results of the experiment"; "Don't despair--help is on the way!"

2. Noun. A state in which all hope is lost or absent. "Courage born of desperation"

3. Noun. The feeling that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well. "One harsh word would send her into the depths of despair"

Definition of Despair

1. v. i. To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation; -- often with of.

2. v. t. To give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of.

3. n. Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.

Definition of Despair

1. Verb. (transitive, obsolete) To give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of. ¹

2. Verb. (transitive, obsolete) To cause to despair. ¹

3. Verb. (intransitive often with “of”) To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation. ¹

4. Noun. Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. ¹

5. Noun. That which is despaired of. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Despair

1. to lose all hope [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Medical Definition of Despair

1. 1. Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. "We in dark dreams are tossing to and fro, Pine with regret, or sicken with despair." (Keble) "Before he [Bunyan] was ten, his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair." (Macaulay) 2. That which is despaired of. "The mere despair of surgery he cures." Synonym: Desperation, despondency, hopelessness. Origin: Cf. OF. Despoir, fr. Desperer. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Despair

desoximetasone desoxy desoxy- desoxy sugar desoxycorticosterone desoxycortone desoxydemoxepam desoxyephedrine desoxypipradrol desoxyribonucleic

desoxyribonucleic acid desoxyribonucleic acids desoxyribose desoxyribose nucleic acid desoxyribose nucleic acids despair (current term) despaired despairer despairers despairful

despairing despairingly despairingness despairs desparate desparingly desparple desparpled desparples desparpling

Literary usage of Despair

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1908)
"despair (Latin desperare, to be hopeless) ethically regarded is the voluntary and complete abandonment of all hope of saving one's soul and of having the ..."

2. The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: Including the Series by Alexander Chalmers, Samuel Johnson (1810)
"A refusal to come is absurd; I'll put myself under his care ; I'll believe his infallible word, And never, no never despair. A PENITENTIAL SOLILOQUY. ..."

3. The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it Is, with All the Kinds, Causes, Symptoms by Robert Burton (1880)
"Symptoms of despair. crated to this purpose, that if a man have either money or friends, or will take any pains to come to such an altar, hear a mass, ..."

4. The life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1883)
"CHAPTER V. I begin to keep a journal—Christen my desert island the Island of despair —Fall upon various schemes to make tools, baskets, ..."

5. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, Edwin Booth, Henry L Hinton (1867)
"... despair, And shuddering lear and green-ey'd jealousy. 0 love ! be moderate ; allay thy ecstasy ; lu measure rain thy joy ;' scant this excess- 1 feel ..."

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