What is "despair"

Despair \De*spair"\, n. [Cf. OF. despoir, fr. desperer.]

1. Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.

   We in dark dreams are tossing to and fro, Pine with regret, or sicken with despair.
   --Keble.

   Before he [Bunyan] was ten, his sports were interrupted by fits of remorse and despair.
   --Macaulay.

2. That which is despaired of. ``The mere despair of surgery he cures.''
   --Shak.

   Syn: Desperation; despondency; hopelessness.

Despair \De*spair"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Despaired; p. pr. & vb. n. Despairing.] [OE. despeiren, dispeiren, OF. desperer, fr. L. desperare; de- + sperare to hope; akin to spes hope, and perh. to spatium space, E. space, speed; cf. OF. espeir hope, F. espoir. Cf. Prosper, Desperate.] To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation; -- often with of.

We despaired even of life.
--2 Cor. i. 8.

Never despair of God's blessings here.
--Wake.

Syn: See Despond.

Despair \De*spair"\, v. t.

1. To give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of.

   I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted.
   --Milton.

2. To cause to despair. [Obs.]
   --Sir W. Williams.

c.1300, from Anglo-French despeir, Old French despoir, from desperer (see despair (v.)). Replaced native wanhope.

early 14c., from stem of Old French desperer "be dismayed, lose hope, despair," from Latin desperare "to despair, to lose all hope," from de- "without" (see de-) + sperare "to hope," from spes "hope" (see sperate). Related: Despaired; despairing; despairingly.

n. 1 Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency. 2 That which is despaired of. vb. 1 (context transitive obsolete English) To give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of. 2 (context transitive obsolete English) To cause to despair. 3 (context intransitive often with “of” English) To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation.

1. n. a state in which everything seems wrong and will turn out badly; "they were rescued from despair at the last minute" [syn: desperation]

2. the feeling that everything is wrong and nothing will turn out well [ant: hope]

3. v. abandon hope; give up hope; lose heart; "Don't despair--help is on the way!" [ant: hope]

Despair is one of the Endless, fictional characters from Neil Gaiman's comic book series, The Sandman.

Despair is the twin sister of Desire. She is squat, flabby and pale-skinned, with black hair, gray eyes, and pointed teeth. Her voice is little more than a whisper, and she has no odor, but her shadow smells musky and pungent, like the skin of a snake. She does not wear clothes. On a finger of her left hand she wears a ring with a hook attached to it, with which she habitually carves her flesh. The hook is her sigil in the galleries of the other characters. Her realm is a gray space in which floats a white fog and countless mirrors, which are connected to mirrors in the human world, through which she looks on those who are in despair. The only other inhabitants of her realm are her pet rats.

Despair sometimes acts together with Desire when they are plotting against the elder Endless, most notably when Despair takes on a challenge with Morpheus over the life of Joshua Abraham Norton, seemingly at Desire's bidding. She is less distanced from the family than Desire, though, and seems to have some feeling at least for Delirium, and also seems to miss Destruction so much that she is able to manipulate Dream into feeling guilty over Destruction's abandoning of his duty. She does not say much, and consequently appears brusque, but her speech at Morpheus' wake in The Wake reveals her sympathy and feeling for him.

In the beginning of Season of Mists (Sandman #21), it is mentioned that Despair was once declared a goddess by a sect, called the Unforgiven, in what is present day Afghanistan. All empty rooms were proclaimed to be her sacred places. The sect existed for two years until the final member killed himself, having survived all others by seven months.

Late in the series, it is revealed that the Despair we see is not the first Despair, but a second aspect. The original Despair is seen in Endless Nights during Dream's story. She is depicted much the same way she is now, fat, flabby, and unclothed, but taller and with red tattoos all over her body, and more talkative. It is also revealed in Brief Lives that, like Daniel Hall, she was originally someone else who took up the mantle of the first Despair upon her death. In Worlds' End, we see that the Old Necropolis was destroyed because the inhabitants laughed at the other Endless for wanting the first Despair's cerements. The only hint to the manner of the first Despair's death is given by Daniel in his conversation with Lyta Hall during The Wake: "The person who was responsible for the death of the first Despair will take the rest of eternity to die. Only then will his pain cease... And he had better cause for what he did than you."

Despair (, or ) is the seventh novel by Vladimir Nabokov, originally published in Russian, serially in the politicized literary journal Sovremennye zapiski during 1934. It was then published as a book in 1936, and translated to English by the author in 1937. Most copies of the 1937 English edition were destroyed by German bombs during World War II; only a few copies remain. Nabokov published a second English translation in 1965; this is now the only English translation in print.

Despair is a 1978 film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Dirk Bogarde, based on the novel of the same name by Vladimir Nabokov. It was entered into the 1978 Cannes Film Festival.

Similarly to the novel, the tone of the film is ironic. The plot is mostly similar to the novel, although one of the key characters is significantly altered in the adaptation.

Despair is a state of depressed mood and hopelessness.

Despair may also refer to:

• Despair (novel), a 1936 novel by Vladimir Nabokov
  • Despair (film), a 1978 film adaptation by Rainer Fassbinder
• Despair (band), a thrash metal band
• Despair (DC Comics), a character in the Sandman comic book series
• Despair (album), an album by Omar Rodríguez-López
• Despair, Inc., a company that makes satirical posters and souvenirs
• Mount Despair (Washington), a mountain in the North Cascades National Park
• Giant Despair, a character in The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
• "Despair", a song by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their studio album Mosquito, 2013

Despair was a technical thrash metal band from Germany, featuring multi-instrumentalist Waldemar Sorychta and Century Media founder Robert Kampf. They released their first album "History of Hate" in 1988 with the following line-up:

• Waldemar Sorychta – guitar, vocals
• Robert Kampf – vocals
• Markus Freiwald – drums
• Marek Greschek – guitar
• Klaus Pachura - bass

In 1990, they released their second album, "Decay of Humanity" with Andreas Hentschel as vocalist. Two years after, in 1992, "Beyond All Reason" album came out, but then Despair split, and Sorychta continued his work with Voodoocult and Grip Inc.. Sorychta and Kampf announced a reformation of the group in late 2004, but nothing definitive has come of this.

Despair is the tenth solo record by Omar Rodríguez-López, released in January 2009 by Willie Anderson Recordings. Prior to beginning the studio sessions for The Mars Volta's The Bedlam in Goliath, Rodriguez-Lopez recorded Despair, inspired by his experiences in and around Jerusalem and using material culled from field recordings and studio experimentation. The record was pressed on white vinyl.

Every track (and the album itself) is named after a film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.