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sion or dejection of the mind. The unhappy prince seemed, during some days, to be sunk in despondency. Macaulay.

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.

Despondency. [Obs.] The slough of despond. Bunyan.

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

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.

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…

impair the energy of; to render ineffective; as, the occurrence paralyzed the community; despondency paralyzed his efforts.