hopeless
/ˈhəʊplɪs
/adjective
1Feeling or causing despair: Jess looked at him in mute hopeless appeal...
- That delicious uncertainty has been replaced by despairing, hopeless inevitability.
- Finally, never leave the examination hall in despair, however hopeless things may seem.
- In the light of the authorities to which I have already referred, that ground of appeal was clearly hopeless.
Synonyms
despairing, without hope, in despair, desperate, dejected, downhearted, despondent, demoralized, disconsolate, downcast, wretched, woebegone, forlorn, negative, pessimistic, defeatist, resigned
irremediable, beyond hope, lost, beyond remedy, beyond repair, beyond recovery, irreparable, irreversible, incorrigible, despaired of;
past cure, incurable, grave, fatal, deadly
impossible, beyond hope, with no chance of success, useless, no-win, futile, unworkable, impracticable, forlorn, pointless, vain
archaic bootless, parlous
2chiefly British Very bad or incompetent: I’m hopeless at names...
- The staff were good on smiles and sartorial smartness, but fairly hopeless at actually doing what was required of them.
- My problem was that I was brilliant at English but hopeless at maths.
- When will governments learn they are hopeless at running businesses?
Synonyms
very bad, very poor, awful, terrible, dreadful, appalling, frightful, atrocious, inferior, incompetent, inadequate, ineffective
informal pathetic, useless, lousy, rotten, a dead loss, abysmal, dire
British informal duff, rubbish, a load of pants, unable to do something for toffee, unable to do something to save one's life