Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To become disheartened or discouraged.
- noun Despondency.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Despondency.
- 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.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Despondency.
- intransitive verb 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.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart.
- noun archaic
Despondency .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb lose confidence or hope; become dejected
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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D.H. Hill's division was at White Oak Swamp Creek, a slough, and one of "despond" to us, draining to the Chickahominy.
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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.
A Knight of the Nineteenth Century Edward Payson Roe 1863
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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.
Lance Mannion: 2009
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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.
Still sick, but ... karenmiller 2009
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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.
Away from the Premier League our parks and pitches are starved of cash | David Conn 2011
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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.
Chapter 1 2010
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From this slough of despond, James ascended to become a central figure in the canon of American and English literature.
The Afterlife of the Lion Joseph Epstein 2012
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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.
Rick Hamlin: Pray For The Unemployed Rick Hamlin 2011
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As the despond deepens, some News Corp shareholders would like a more ordinary, conventional company to invest in.
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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.
Rick Hamlin: Pray For The Unemployed Rick Hamlin 2011
reesetee commented on the word despond
best used in the phrase "slough of despond."
April 13, 2007
yarb commented on the word despond
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.
June 19, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word despond
The name of the slough was Despond.
John Bunyan (1628-1688), Pilgrim's Progress
September 19, 2009