Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To become disheartened or discouraged.
- n. Despondency: "The outward show of fight masked a spreading inner despond at the White House” ( Newsweek).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lose heart, resolution, or hope; be cast down; be depressed or dejected in mind.
- Synonyms Despair, Despond. Despair implies a total loss of hope; despond does not. Despondency produces a disposition to relax or relinquish effort; despair generally stops all effort. See despair, n.
- n. Despondency.
Wiktionary
- v. To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart.
- n. archaic Despondency.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to be thoroughly disheartened; to lose all courage; to become dispirited or depressed; to take an unhopeful view.
- n. obsolete Despondency.
WordNet 3.0
- v. lose confidence or hope; become dejected
Etymologies
- From Latin despondere ‘give up, abandon’, from de- + spondere ‘promise’. (Wiktionary)
- Latin dēspondēre, to give up : dē-, de- + spondēre, to promise; see spend- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“D.H. Hill's division was at White Oak Swamp Creek, a slough, and one of "despond" to us, draining to the Chickahominy.”
“With all its beauty and comfort it would become to him almost inevitably a slough, both of "despond" and of dissipation -- dissipation of the worst and most hopeless kind, wherein the victim's ruling motive is to get rid of self.”
“As the despond deepens, some News Corp shareholders would like a more ordinary, conventional company to invest in.”
The Guardian: Plc? No thanks. Papers are best as family businesses
“From this slough of despond, James ascended to become a central figure in the canon of American and English literature.”
“Even though my health isn't great, he's making sure I don't descend into a slough of despond by demanding we play a bit each day.”
“If you are in that job-hunting slough of despond, I welcome you to log on to OurPrayer.org and let your need be known.”
“Daylight the centre of it and the animating spark, with quip and jest and rough merriment rousing them out of the slough of despond in which he had found them.”
“It can be overdone, and it's nice to take a vacation from it now and then, either by sinking into your own private slough of despond or by finding a bar full of kindred dour spirits and share complaints or by visiting New York City or by just kicking a mime.”
“Manchester had its grand London outing on Saturday, 64,000 City and United fans paying £30-£60 per ticket to help the Football Association with its Wembley debts, Sheikh Mansour's City overcoming the Glazers' United in that gripping drama of delight and despond.”
The Guardian: Away from the Premier League our parks and pitches are starved of cash | David Conn
“He saved four break points in the ninth game but could not find a winning rhythm as the defending champion had to do little more than wait for him to make mistakes - and, sure enough, he hit a forehand way long from deep to go 5-2 down, sinking further into despond.”
The Guardian: Rafael Nadal beats adventurous Andy Murray to reach US Open final | Kevin Mitchell
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘despond’.
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Character traits
Falstaffian, drumble, despond, grotesque, élan, anile, feal, smart aleck, phat, blowsy, haver, hoary and 18 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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Joshee Word List
gash, engross, entail, stoke, ode, vacillate, aspersion, asperity, clan, kith, prospect, nag and 229 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1387 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Pneumatologia
Terms and phrases from John Owen's (1616-1683) theological writings, to some of which the collective title Pneumatologia has been posthumously applied. Some few of the terms listed herein are Septu...
superstruction, despond, Socinians, unbeholden, unwarrantable, ulcerous, posthume, Photinians, Pelagians, virulently, unavoidably, putid and 221 more...
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whim!
unalloyed, abate, dated, chiffon, sturgeon, nahuatl, elephant, wolverine, chaos, pandemonium, rice paddy, crop circle and 34 more...
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John Bunyan's Dream Team
List of characters and character names found in the poetry of John Bunyan (1628-1688). With some place names thrown in for good measure.
mr. badman, obstinate, pliable, despond, mr. worldly-wise-man, beautiful, apollyon, humiliation, vanity-fair, mr. cruelty, water-man, ease and 13 more...
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Emotions: Specific Sads
Words I collect to attempt to describe what I feel sometimes.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for despond.
hernesheir The name of the slough was Despond.
John Bunyan (1628-1688), Pilgrim's Progress Sep 19, 2009
yarb The welcome news of the death of Julian, which a deserter revealed to the camp of Sapor, inspired the desponding monarch with a sudden confidence of victory.
- Gibbon, Decline and Fall, XXIV. v. Jun 19, 2009
reesetee best used in the phrase "slough of despond." Apr 13, 2007