Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Full of or indicating despair; hopeless.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Hopeless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Characterised by despair; hopeless.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From despair +‎ -ful.

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Examples

  • And at this place and that, I to make pause that I show Mine Own those places where I did slumber, and she alway to need that she come unto the very part, and that she stand for a little moment where I did lie so lonesome, as I went outward unto that despairful searching.

    The Night Land 2007

  • It filled the evening air with its doleful wailing, and I remarked that there was in it a curious sobbing, most human in its despairful crying.

    The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig' 2007

  • That growing despairful insubordination that had done so much to bring about the winding up of the World War in 1918 reappeared in new forms.

    The Shape of Things to Come Herbert George 2006

  • But when he thought of her lying there, and that all was over, that they would lay her in the earth, he was seized with a fierce, gloomy, despairful rage.

    Madame Bovary 2003

  • A cheerful, hopeful, contented mind, predisposes to a healthy body, and conversely, a discontented and despairful mind, interferes with the vital functions and invites disease and death.

    Twentieth Century Negro Literature Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro Daniel Wallace [Editor] Culp

  • There are others that are made bitter and morose and despairful.

    Sermons on Biblical Characters Clovis G. Chappell

  • This time there was a despairful agony of kindness in his face.

    Tramping on Life Kemp, Harry, 1883-1960 1922

  • He rolled his big, brown eyes in a despairful manner that was unconsciously comic.

    Tramping on Life Kemp, Harry, 1883-1960 1922

  • One glance he cast into the tiny cavity, then dropped back upon the bunk, twisting his mobile mouth in that half smile at once humorous and despairful.

    The Yellow Claw Sax Rohmer 1921

  • Smith met my glance as I raised my head, and his teeth came together with a loud snap; the jaw muscles stood out prominently beneath the dark skin; and his face was grimly set in that old, half-despairful expression which I knew so well but which boded so ill for whomsoever occasioned it.

    The Devil Doctor Sax Rohmer 1921

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