See Also: Despair(medicine)
despair(1)(dictionary)
despair(2)(dictionary)
despair 1, noun(dictionary)
despair 2, verb(dictionary)

despair(1) (iou)



despair noun. ME.
[Anglo-Norman var. of Old French desespeir (mod. desespoir).]
Complete loss or absence of hope; (a feeling of) hopelessness. ME.
counsel of despair: see COUNSEL noun 1. in despair in a despairing state, affected by a feeling of hopelessness.
R. P. Warren A sadness overcame him, more than sadness, a despair. M. L. King Revolution, though born of despair, cannot long be sustained by despair. personified: W. Cowper Hollow-eyed Abstinence, and lean Despair.
A cause of hopelessness; a thing about which there is no hope. E17.
Shakespeare Macbeth Strangely-visited people, All swoln and ulcerous..The mere despair of surgery, he cures. Shelley Those faultless productions, whose very fragments, are the despair of modern art.
despairful adjective full of despair, desperate L16.
despairfully adverb E17.