# despairing

Pronunciation: say "di-SPAIR-ing" US /dɪˈspɛɹ.ɪŋ/, UK /dɪˈspɛəɹ.ɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Feeling or expressing despair, or brought about by it; without hope.
   - Simple: Feeling, showing, or coming from a loss of all hope.
   - _A despairing cry went up from the crowd as the ship slipped beneath the waves._
   - _With a final despairing lunge, the goalkeeper got a fingertip to the ball._

## Verb

2. Present participle and gerund of despair. — present participle and gerund of despair
   - Simple: Present participle and gerund of despair. Use it after "is" or "was", or as a noun for the act.
   - _Investors, despairing of a recovery, sold their shares at a loss._
   - _Despairing gets us nowhere, so let's make a plan._

## Noun

3. A mood of despair, or an outward show of it.
   - Simple: A feeling of having no hope, or a way of showing that feeling.
   - _Months of lonely despairing showed in his face when he finally came home._
   - _The poet's despairings fill a whole notebook, though he published none of them._

## Origin

From Middle English despeyringe, equivalent to despair and the suffix -ing.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/despairing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).