Find the word definition

Crossword clues for pessimistic

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
pessimistic
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a negative/pessimistic outlook
▪ This pessimistic outlook on their lives leads to depression.
pessimistic/gloomy (=expecting bad things to happen)
▪ Scientists have produced a gloomy forecast on the effects of global warming.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ Normative theories tend to be fairly egalitarian, whereas positive theories are generally more pessimistic about redistributive prospects.
▪ It made government supporters more optimistic about the economy and opposition supporters more pessimistic.
▪ In general, people are more pessimistic now.
▪ Paradoxically, this move beyond the individual to the social has resulted in a much more pessimistic prognosis for disabled people.
▪ Revised forecasts - expected in November - are likely to be more pessimistic.
▪ Another more pessimistic version of modern Malthusianism dealt less with economics and more with the ecological limits to growth.
most
▪ When his doctors were at their most pessimistic, Raine's will-power won through.
▪ General practitioners have had to bear a much heavier load than even the most pessimistic were expecting.
too
▪ The above is, however, too pessimistic a view.
▪ While based upon an extensive data base and significant historical research, this Rand report has been criticized as being too pessimistic.
▪ And Gilroy seems too pessimistic about the state of black politics.
▪ Is this is too pessimistic a view?
▪ Proponents of the changes did, however, find the prognostications of their adversaries far too pessimistic and polemical.
■ NOUN
view
▪ That's a very pessimistic view.
▪ Some of the early researchers took a pessimistic view of what we would lose with the disappearance of native languages.
▪ Whilst this may appear an extreme and pessimistic view, it is the reality of retirement for many retired people.
▪ Under these conditions, it is not surprising to find that superiors and subordinates hold optimistic and pessimistic views about each other.
▪ He seemed to take a pessimistic view of your complaint, whatever it was.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Beron is pessimistic that a peaceful solution can be found.
▪ Don't be too pessimistic - we may still win the game.
▪ He's quite pessimistic about his chances of getting another job.
▪ Some environmentalists take a more pessimistic view.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But Republican leaders were pessimistic about a speedy resolution.
▪ Essentially, the medical approach has painted a pessimistic picture.
▪ George is quite realistic throughout the book and is in some cases, justifiably pessimistic.
▪ He was morose, pessimistic, obsessed with achieving the perfect style.
▪ Stock and bond markets, already weak, fell further after the pessimistic comments were carried on news wires.
▪ That's a very pessimistic view.
▪ The first is somewhat misleading; the second is certainly wrong; and the third, unduly pessimistic.
▪ When you are pessimistic and expect the worst, your attitude is often negative.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Pessimistic

Pessimist \Pes"si*mist\, Pessimistic \Pes`si*mis"tic\, a. (Metaph.) Of or pertaining to pessimism; characterized by pessimism; gloomy; foreboding. ``Giving utterance to pessimistic doubt.''
--Encyc. Brit.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
pessimistic

1866, from pessimist + -ic.

Wiktionary
pessimistic

a. 1 Marked by pessimism and little hopefulness; expecting the worst. 2 Pertaining to the worst-case scenario.

WordNet
pessimistic

adj. expecting the worst in this worst of all possible worlds [ant: optimistic]

Usage examples of "pessimistic".

The pessimistic Ascenders dourly pursued an otherworldly Goal they were assured of never reaching, and the optimistic Descenders giddily embraced a this-worldly creation whose Source they celebrated but never experienced.

Narcissists are atrabilious, infinitely pessimistic, bad-tempered, paranoid and sadistic in an absent-minded and indifferent manner.

The extreme Left still tends to be defeatist, except as regards the Russian front, and at each stage of the African campaign its press has clung almost desperately to a pessimistic interpretation of events.

This Bali Hai had been built by Canadians, who seemed always to have an uncanny sense of which Florida beach was going to become popular next, but it was run by a pessimistic married couple from Maine who had spent one winter too many among the snowdrifts of that igloo.

Bienville, the brother, also deserves remembrance both in France and America--dismissed once but exonerated, returning later to succeed the pessimistic Cadillac and to lay the foundations of New Orleans on the only dry spot he had found on his first journey up the river, there to plant the seed of the fruits and melons and pumpkins of the garden on Dauphin Island, that were to bring forth millionfold, though they have not yet entirely crowded out the cypress and the palmetto, and the fleur-de-lis that still grows wild and flowers brilliantly at certain seasons.

TARSAM: a successful but pessimistic sheep farmer who dwells in the Tarlagar backcountry nigh the Windfangs foothills, and habitually drinks at the Glory of Aglirta tavern.

Meiji and early Taisho periods were pessimistic or skeptical about the values of a modernized Japan.

I entirely grant you that those two old sinners by this time were taking very pessimistic and very melancholy views of human nature, and, therefore, of every human being, young and old.

To return to the assessments of Western intelligence agencies, if Saddam began a crash program in 1998, as recent sources have indicated, the most pessimistic assessments suggest he could have a nuclear weapon by 2004, while the more optimistic ones predict that he will have one by 2008.

While hoping that following the ion trails back the way they had come might result in discovering the location of the Hive homeworld, the more pessimistic of both species recognized that the trails might dwindle to nothing considering the period of time involved - and the effort would be wasted.

Most people found the standard personality emulation somewhat pessimistic for their tastes, and purchased an aftermarket buckley with a personality overlay more compatible with their own preferences.

To receive this help the person must go with the pessimistic as- sumption that he is guilty, even though his own assessment of himself is one of innocence.

And he was not, as some of the more pessimistic exobiologists had predicted, either shocked or nauseated.

Pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for physical illness: A thirty-five-year longitudinal study.

Brenna did a quick mental inventory of her freezer, pessimistic about her chances of finding a frozen dinner there.