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
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.
As wars multiply, Pope Leo’s aides aren’t despairing about the possibilities of diplomacy.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 21, 2026
This was Spurs in microcosm with mistake piled upon mistake – the self-destruct button pressed with despairing regularity.
From BBC • Mar. 10, 2026
But Nina soon found herself despairing, once she realized she could not leave her hiding place.
From Barron's • Feb. 2, 2026
But the protagonist is a Latino man crying over the film’s despairing score that he’ll “do anything” to return to his wife and kids and “live again.”
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 23, 2025
For the despairing moments in between, I was left in my personal darkness.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
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.
