Search the Dictionary

become dispirited or depressed; to take an unhopeful view. I should despair, or at least despond. Scott's Letters. Others depress their own minds, [and] despond at the first difficulty. Locke. We wish that . . . desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that foundations of our national power s…

Despondency. The people, when once infected, lose their relish for happiness [and] saunter about with looks of despondence. Goldsmith.

The state of desponding; loss of hope and cessation of effort; discouragement; depression or dejection of the mind. The unhappy prince seemed, during some days, to be sunk in despondency. Macaulay.

Marked by despondence; given to despondence; low-spirited; as, a despondent manner; a despondent prisoner. -- De*spond"ent*ly, adv.

One who desponds.

In a desponding manner.

Low spirits; a fit of despondency; melancholy. [Colloq.] Berlin blue, Prussian blue. -- Mineral blue. See under Mineral. -- Prussian blue. See under Prussian.

To support or sustain; to preserve from sinking into ruin or despondency. Those old prejudices, which buoy up the ponderous mass of his nobility, wealth, and title. Burke.

rd; to take a downward direction; to bend over or hang down, as from weakness, weariness, despondency, etc.; to condescend. "With declining head." Shak. He . . . would decline even to the lowest of his family. Lady Hutchinson. Disdaining to decline, Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries. Byron. The ground at length…

Dejection; despondency; lowness. In a great depression of spirit. Baker.

Abandonment by God; spiritual despondency. The spiritual agonies of a soul under desertion. South.

Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. We in dark dreams are tossing to and fro, Pine with regret, or sicken with despair. Keble. Before he [Bunyan] was ten, his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair. Macaulay.

See Despond.

A dull, gloomy state of the mind; sadness; melancholy; low spirits; despondency; ill humor; -- now used only in the plural. March slowly on in solemn dump. Hudibras. Doleful dumps the mind oppress. Shak. I was musing in the midst of my dumps. Bunyan.

To sink into dejection; to lose courage or spirit; to become depressed or despondent. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Prov. xxiv. 10.

ne); to have an inward conviction of, as of a calamity which is about to happen; to augur despondingly. His heart forebodes a mystery. Tennyson. Sullen, desponding, and foreboding nothing but wars and desolation, as the certain consequence of Cæsar's death. Middleton. I have a sort of foreboding about him. H. James.…

with coolness and courage, or to bear pain or adversity without murmuring, depression, or despondency; passive courage; resolute endurance; firmness in confronting or bearing up against danger or enduring trouble. Extolling patience as the truest fortitude. Milton. Fortitude is the guard and support of the other virtue…

Sick at heart; extremely depressed in spirits; very despondent.

ove or act; very slow to act; sluggish; dull; inactive; indolent; lifeless. The inert and desponding party of the court. Macaulay. It present becomes extravagant, then imbecile, and at length utterly inert. I. Taylor.

rn." Thomson. Benumbed with cold, and listless of their gain. Dryden. I was listless, and desponding. Swift.