| 释义 |
hopeless, a.|ˈhəʊplɪs|
[f. hope n.1 + -less.]
1. Destitute of hope; having or feeling no hope; despairing.
1590Shakes. Com. Err. i. i. 158 Hopelesse and helpelesse doth Egean wend. 1611― Cymb. iv. iv. 27 Hopelesse To haue the courtesie your Cradle promis'd. 1659Hammond On Ps. cii. 6, I am as destitute and hopeless of it as the most solitary Pelican. 1823Scoresby Whale Fishery 460 On this [ice-floe] they spent a dismal and hopeless night. 1884Contemp. Rev. May 629 Is it surprising that the great army of the hopeless should forget the way to church?
2. Of or concerning which there is no hope; despaired of, desperate. Also in weakened use: ineffectual, inadequate, unable to stand up for oneself; incompetent, stupid.
1566Drant Horace, Sat. ii. ii. (R.), He..keepes it well, and warylye to helpe in hopelesse tyde. 1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 50 Laocoon..al hoaples Hee striues. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 87 ⁋2 A sign of hopeless depravity, that though good advice was given, it wrought no reformation. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 185 He recovered from maladies which seemed hopeless. 1854E. Twisleton Let. 23 Oct. (1928) xiii. 245 Prussia is as fainéant as ever, and seems quite hopeless. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. I. v. 296 To reconcile the chronology is hopeless. 1922W. S. Maugham Writer's Notebk. (1949) 188 ‘You can't do a thing for people like that,’ he said. ‘They're hopeless.’ 1932R. Lehmann Invitation to Waltz iii. xiv. 240 But of course Mum's hopeless. She thinks virgins are sacred to all men. 1963D. Cory Hammerhead ii. 26 ‘Who's this..?’ ‘That's Cary Grant, you are hopeless, Johnny.’ 1967O. Norton Now lying Dead i. 3 ‘I'm hopeless,’ she went on. ‘I made a teapot once. It looked dinky. Only it wouldn't pour, don't you see.’
†3. Unhoped-for, unexpected. Obs.
1590Spenser F.Q. iii. v. 34 His watry eies..He up gan lifte toward the azure skies, From whence descend all hope⁓lesse remedies. 1624Capt. Smith Virginia iv. 160 Giuing thanks to God for so hopelesse a deliuerance. |