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. 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. Despondency.
WordNet 3.0
- v. lose confidence or hope; become dejected
Etymologies
- Latin dēspondēre, to give up : dē-, de- + spondēre, to promise; see spend- in Indo-European roots.
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 280 more...
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Character traits
Falstaffian, drumble, despond, grotesque, élan, anile, feal, smart aleck, phat, blowsy, haver, hoary and 18 more...
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