173. Despair (See also Futility.)

1. Achitophel hanged himself from despair when his advice went unheeded. [O.T.: II Samuel 17:23]
2. Aram, Eugene scholar murders from pressure of poverty. [Br. Lit.: Eugene Aram ]
3. Bowery, the Manhattan skid row for alcoholics. [Am. Hist.: Hart, 97]
4. Giant Despair imprisons Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle. [Br. Lit.: Pilgrim’s Progress ]
5. Hrothgar Danish king desperately distressed by warrior-killing monster. [Br. Lit.: Beowulf ]
6. Maurya mother loses six sons in the sea. [Br. Lit.: Riders to the Sea ]
7. Melusina fairy who despaired when husband discovered secret. [Fr. Folklore: Brewer Handbook, 695]
8. Narcissus wastes away yearning to kiss reflection of himself. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Handbook, 745; Rom. Lit.: Metamorphoses ]
9. Slough of Despond bog enmiring and discouraging Christian. [Br. Lit.: Pilgrim’s Progress ]
10. Sullivan brothers mother despairs over losing her five sons in WWII (1942). [Am. Hist.: Facts (1943), 106]
11. Tristram or Tristan falsely told that Iseult is not coming to save him from fatal poisoning, he dies of despair. [Medieval Legend: Brewer Dictionary ]
12. Waiting for Godot tramps consider hanging themselves because Godot has failed to arrive to set things straight. [Anglo-French Drama: Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot in Magill III, 1113]

Detection, Crime (See SLEUTHING .)

Destiny (See FATE .)

de·spair / diˈspe(ə)r/ • n. the complete loss or absence of hope: driven to despair, he throws himself under a train | in despair, I hit the bottle.• v. [intr.] lose or be without hope: we should not despair| he was beginning to despair of ever knowing | [as adj.] (despairing) he gave a despairing little shrug. PHRASES: be the despair of be the cause of a feeling of hopelessness in (someone else): my handwriting was the despair of my teachers.DERIVATIVES: des·pair·ing·ly adv.

Despair ★★★ Eine Reise ins Licht 1978

A chilling and comic study of a victimized chocolate factory owner's descent into madness, set against the backdrop of the Nazi rise to power in the 1930s. Adapted from the Nabokov novel by Tom Stoppard. 120m/C VHS . GE Dirk Bogarde, Andrea Ferreol, Volker Spengler, Klaus Lowitsch; D: Rainer Werner Fassbinder; W: Tom Stoppard; C: Michael Ballhaus; M: Peer Raben.

despair vb. XIV. f. despeir-, tonic stem of OF. desperer :- L. dēspērāre (see DESPERATE).
So despair sb. XIV. — AN. *despeir, for OF. desespeir (mod. désespoir).