adjective
Usage
What does despairing mean? Despairing is an adjective that describes people who are experiencing despair—complete hopelessness. The word despair is also commonly used as a verb meaning to lose all hope, and despairing comes from the continuous tense (-ing form) of the verb. A despairing person is usually someone who is deeply sad about something that has happened or that hasn’t happened—something usually triggers the despair. This is especially the case in serious and very negative situations that involve finality, such as death or a devastating loss in a political election. It often implies that one is giving up—that they believe there is nothing more to be done to make things better. Despairing can also be used to describe things that involve or show despair, as in a despairing look. Example: The despairing players stared in disbelief at the scoreboard, which showed an insurmountable lead with only minutes left.
Related Words
See hopeless.
Other Word Forms
- despairingly adverb
- undespairing adjective
- undespairingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of despairing
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The angry, despairing look on team owner Lawrence Stroll's face in Bahrain said it all.
From BBC • Mar. 3, 2026
But Nina soon found herself despairing, once she realized she could not leave her hiding place.
From Barron's • Feb. 2, 2026
Any freelance journalist who finds herself despairing over the paltry rates that today’s assigning editors are offering might want to familiarize herself with Fanny Fern before her next negotiation.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 27, 2026
Some of Tarr’s most memorable scenes feature landscapes, often bleak and despairing settings of decaying Hungarian towns, punctuated with close-ups of characters’ faces.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2026
Then to the sullen and despairing North there came heartening news, the first of which was in a dispatch from Mobile, Alabama.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
