despond
/dɪˈspɒnd
/verb [no object] archaic
Become dejected and lose confidence: I thought it right not to let my young lady despond...
- The morning of June 8th, he rose late because ‘I was desponding, owing to a little difference between my wife and me.’
- Did perhaps their hearts despond, because lonesomeness had swallowed me like a whale?
- These… these are things that you needn't despond over at your age.
noun [mass noun]
A state of unhappiness and low spirits.And she had affected so many people so deeply, that her loss on the negative side took them much deeper into grief and despond, I think, than anybody had ever experienced....
- That is making it nearly impossible to craft monetary policy that is both hawkish on inflation, and doesn't throw huge economies deeper into the slough of economic despond.
- Against that has to be weighed the tired limbs of an unusually arduous season and the traditional role of the eternal unfulfilled that may once again drag them down into a familiar despond.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin despondere 'give up, abandon', from de- 'away' + spondere 'to promise'. The word was originally used as a noun in Slough of Despond.
Rhymes
- black-tailed deer
- black-tailed godwit
- black tang
- black tar
- black taxi
- black tea
- black tellurium
- black theology
- blackthorn
- blackthorn winter
- black-throat
- black-throated
- black-throated diver
- Black Thursday
- black tie
- black-tied
- black tin
- black tobacco
- black tongue
- blacktop
- black tracker
- black trader factory
- black tripe
- black truffle
- black trumpet