Despair

• POS: Noun, Verb (intransitive), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: des=pair

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Despair, n. & v.
--n. the complete loss or absence of hope.
--v.intr.
1 (often foll. by of) lose or be without hope (despaired of ever seeing her again).
2 (foll. by of) lose hope about (his life is despaired of).

Idiom

be the despair of be the cause of despair by badness or unapproachable excellence (he's the despair of his parents).

Derivative

despairingly adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF desespeir, desperer f. L desperare (as DE-, sperare hope)

THESAURUS

Despair

Schmerz, Slough of Despond, abandon, abandon hope, acedia, aching heart, agony, agony of mind, anguish, apathy, bale, become suicidal, bitterness, blank despondency, bleeding heart, broken heart, cave of Trophonius, cave of despair, crushing, death wish, dejectedness, dejection, depression, depth of misery, desolation, despair of, desperateness, desperation, despond, despondency, despondentness, disconsolateness, discouragement, disheartenment, dispiritedness, distress, down trip, downcastness, downer, downheartedness, droop, drooping spirits, drop, extremity, falter, forlornness, give up, give up hope, give way, gloom, gloominess, grief, heartache, heartlessness, heavy heart, hit rock bottom, hopelessness, infelicity, languish, lose heart, lose hope, low spirits, lowness, lowness of spirit, malaise, melancholia, melancholy, miserableness, misery, no exit, no way, no way out, oppression, pessimism, plumb the depths, prostration, quit, reach the depths, relinquish, renounce, resign, resignation, sadness, self-destructive urge, sink, sink into despair, sinking heart, sloth, spiritlessness, suicidal despair, surrender, taedium vitae, touch bottom, weariness of life, woe, wretchedness, yield, yield to despair

ROGET THESAURUS

Despair

Pain

N mental suffering, pain, dolor, suffering, sufferance, ache, smart, passion, displeasure, dissatisfaction, discomfort, discomposure, disquiet, malaise, inquietude, uneasiness, vexation of spirit, taking, discontent, dejection, weariness, anhedonia, annoyance, irritation, worry, infliction, visitation, plague, bore, bother, botheration, stew, vexation, mortification, chagrin, esclandre, mauvais quart d'heur, care, anxiety, solicitude, trouble, trial, ordeal, fiery ordeal, shock, blow, cark, dole, fret, burden, load, concern, grief, sorrow, distress, affliction, woe, bitterness, heartache, carking cares, heavy heart, aching heart, bleeding heart, broken heart, heavy affliction, gnawing grief, unhappiness, infelicity, misery, tribulation, wretchedness, desolation, despair, extremity, prostration, depth of misery, nightmare, ephialtes, incubus, pang, anguish, agony, torture, torment, purgatory, hell upon earth, iron age, reign of terror, slough of despond, peck of troubles, ills that flesh is heir to, miseries of human life, unkindest cut of all, sufferer, victim, prey, martyr, object of compassion, wretch, shorn lamb, in pain, in a state of pain, full of pain, suffering, pained, afflicted, worried, displeased, aching, griped, sore, on the rack, in limbo, between hawk and buzzard, uncomfortable, uneasy, ill at ease, in a taking, in a way, disturbed, discontented, out of humor, weary, heavy laden, stricken, crushed, a prey to, victimized, ill-used, unfortunate, to be pitied, doomed, devoted, accursed, undone, lost, stranded, fey, unhappy, infelicitous, poor, wretched, miserable, woe-begone, cheerless, careworn, concerned, sorry, sorrowing, sorrowful, cut up, chagrined, horrified, horror-stricken, in grief, plunged in grief, a prey to grief, in tears, steeped to the lips in misery, heart-stricken, heart-broken, heart-scalded, broken-hearted, in despair, the iron entered into our soul, haeret lateri lethalis arundo, one's heart bleeding, down, thou climbing sorrow, mirth cannot move a soul in agony, nessun maggior dolere che ricordarsi del tempo fel, sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier th, the Niobe of Nations.

VB feel pain, suffer pain, experience pain, undergo pain, bear pain, endure pain, smart, ache, suffer, bleed, ail, be the victim of, labor under afflictions, bear the cross, quaff the bitter cup, have a bad time of it, fall on evil days, go hard with, come to grief, fall a sacrifice to, drain the cup of misery to the dregs, sup full of horrors, sit on thorns, be on pins and needles, wince, fret, chafe, worry oneself, be in a taking, fret and fume, take on, take to heart, cark, grieve, mourn, yearn, repine, pine, droop, languish, sink, give way, despair, break one's heart, weigh upon the heart.

Dejection

N dejection, dejectedness, depression, prosternation, lowness of spirits, depression of spirits, weight on the spirits, oppression on the spirits, damp on the spirits, low spirits, bad spirits, drooping spirits, depressed spirits, heart sinking, heaviness of heart, failure of heart, heaviness, infestivity, gloom, weariness, taedium vitae, disgust of life, mal du pays, anhedonia, melancholy, sadness, il penseroso, melancholia, dismals, blues, lachrymals, mumps, dumps, blue devils, doldrums, vapors, megrims, spleen, horrors, hypochondriasis, pessimism, la maladie sans maladie, despondency, slough of Despond, disconsolateness, hope deferred, blank despondency, voiceless woe, prostration of soul, broken heart, despair, cave of despair, cave of Trophonius demureness, gravity, solemnity, long face, grave face, hypochondriac, seek sorrow, self-tormentor, heautontimorumenos, malade imaginaire, medecin tant pis, croaker, pessimist, mope, mopus, affliction, sorry sight, memento mori, damper, wet blanket, Job's comforter, cheerless, joyless, spiritless, uncheerful, uncheery, unlively, unhappy, melancholy, dismal, somber, dark, gloomy, triste, clouded, murky, lowering, frowning, lugubrious, funereal, mournful, lamentable, dreadful, dreary, flat, dull, dull as a beetle, dull as ditchwater, depressing, melancholy as a gib cat, oppressed with melancholy, a prey to melancholy, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, down in one's luck, heavy-hearted, in the dumps, down in the dumps, in the suds, in the sulks, in the doldrums, in doleful dumps, in bad humor, sullen, mumpish, dumpish, mopish, moping, moody, glum, sulky, out of sorts, out of humor, out of heart, out of spirits, ill at ease, low spirited, in low spirits, a cup too low, weary, discouraged, disheartened, desponding, chapfallen, chopfallen, jaw fallen, crest fallen, sad, pensive, penseroso, tristful, dolesome, doleful, woebegone, lacrymose, lachrymose, in tears, melancholic, hypped, hypochondriacal, bilious, jaundiced, atrabilious, saturnine, splenetic, lackadaisical, serious, sedate, staid, stayed, grave as a judge, grave as an undertaker, grave as a mustard pot, sober, sober as a judge, solemn, demure, grim, grim-faced, grim-visaged, rueful, wan, long-faced, disconsolate, unconsolable, inconsolable, forlorn, comfortless, desolate, desole, sick at heart, soul sick, heart sick, au desespoir, in despair, lost, overcome, broken down, borne down, bowed down, heartstricken, cut up, dashed, sunk, unnerved, unmanned, down fallen, downtrodden, broken-hearted, careworn, with a long face, with tears in one's eyes, sadly, the countenance falling, the heart failing, the heart sinking within one, a plague of sighing and grief, thick-ey'd musing and curs'd melancholy, the sickening pang of hope deferred.

VB be dejected, grieve, mourn, take on, give way, lose heart, despond, droop, sink, lower, look downcast, frown, pout, hang down the head, pull a long face, make a long face, laugh on the wrong side of the mouth, grin a ghastly smile, look blue, look like a drowned man, lay to heart, take to heart, mope, brood over, fret, sulk, pine, pine away, yearn, repine, despair, refrain from laughter, keep one's countenance, be grave, look grave, repress a smile, depress, discourage, dishearten, dispirit, damp, dull, deject, lower, sink, dash, knock down, unman, prostrate, break one's heart, frown upon, cast a gloom, cast a shade on, sadden, damp one's hopes, dash one's hopes, wither one's hopes, weigh on the mind, lie heavy on the mind, prey on the mind, weigh on the spirits, lie heavy on the spirits, prey on the spirits, damp the spirits, depress the spirits.

Hopelessness

N hopelessness, despair, desperation, despondency, depression, pessimism, pessimist, Job's comforter, bird of bad omen, bird of ill omen, abandonment, desolation, resignation, surrender, submission, hope deferred, dashed hopes, vain expectation, airy hopes &c, forlorn hope, gone case, dead duck, gone coon, goner, bad job, bad business, enfant perdu, gloomy horizon, black spots in the horizon, slough of Despond, cave of Despair, immedicabile vulnus, hopeless, desperate, despairing, gone, in despair, au desespoir, forlorn, desolate, inconsolable, broken hearted, unpromising, unpropitious, inauspicious, ill-omened, threatening, clouded over, out of the question, not to be thought of, impracticable, past hope, past cure, past mending, past recall, at one's last gasp, given up, given over, incurable, cureless, immedicable, remediless, beyond remedy, incorrigible, irreparable, irremediable, irrecoverable, irreversible, irretrievable, irreclaimable, irredeemable, irrevocable, ruined, undone, immitigable, lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate, its days are numbered, the worst come to the worst, no change, no pause, no hope, yet I endure, O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon, mene mene tekel upharson.

VB despair, lose all hope, give up all hope, abandon all hope, relinquish all hope, lose the hope of, give up the hope of, abandon the hope of, relinquish the hope of, give up, give over, yield to despair, falter, despond, jeter le manche apres la cognee, inspire despair, drive to despair, disconcert, dash one's hopes, crush one's hopes, destroy one's hopes, hope against hope, abandon, resign, surrender, submit.

Fear

N fear, timidity, diffidence, want of confidence, apprehensiveness, fearfulness, solicitude, anxiety, care, apprehension, misgiving, feeze, mistrust, suspicion, qualm, hesitation, nervousness, restlessness, inquietude, disquietude, worry, concern, batophobia, heartquake, flutter, trepidation, fear and trembling, perturbation, tremor, quivering, shaking, trembling, throbbing heart, palpitation, ague fit, cold sweat, abject fear, mortal funk, heartsinking, despondency, despair, fright, affright, affrightment, boof alarm, dread, awe, terror, horror, dismay, consternation, panic, scare, stampede (of horses), intimidation, terrorism, reign of terror, bug bear, bugaboo, scarecrow, hobgoblin, nightmare, Gorgon, mormo, ogre, Hurlothrumbo, raw head and bloody bones, fee-faw-fum, bete noire, enfant terrible, alarmist, fearing, frightened, in fear, in a fright, haunted with the fear of, afeard, afraid, fearful, timid, timorous, nervous, diffident, coy, faint- hearted, tremulous, shaky, afraid of one's shadow, apprehensive, restless, fidgety, more frightened than hurt, aghast, awe-stricken, horror-stricken, terror-stricken, panic- stricken, awestruck, awe-stricken, horror-struck, frightened to death, white as a sheet, pale, pale as a ghost, pale as death, pale as ashes, breathless, in hysterics, inspiring fear, alarming, formidable, redoubtable, perilous, portentous, fearful, dread, dreadful, fell, dire, direful, shocking, terrible, terrific, tremendous, horrid, horrible, horrific, ghastly, awful, awe-inspiring, revolting, Gorgonian, in terrorem, Int, angels and ministers of grace defend us!, ante tubam trepidat, horresco referens, one's heart failing one, obstupui steteruntque comae et vox faucibus haesit, a dagger of the mind, expertus metuit, fain would I climb but that I fear to fall, fear is the parent of cruelty, Gorgons and hydras and chimeras dire, omnia tuta timens, our fears do make us traitors.