WordNet
n. (formal) extreme depression
Wikipedia
The Slough of Despond (; "swamp of despair") is a fictional, deep bog in John Bunyan's allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, into which the protagonist Christian sinks under the weight of his sins and his sense of guilt for them.
It is described in the text:
'This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.'
The "Slough of Despond" may have been inspired by Squitch Fen, a wet and marshy area near his cottage in Harrowden, Bedfordshire, which Bunyan had to cross on his way to church in Elstow, or "The Souls' Slough" on the Great North Road between Tempsford and Biggleswade.
Usage examples of "slough of despond".
Nowhere near as bad as you thought when you were halfway through the first draft, struggling against the slough of despond.
The operating system market is a death-trap, a tar-pit, a slough of despond.
I am sinking into such a slough of despond as only an artist whose job is finished must endure.
The next time I see you sinking into a slough of despond or starting to feel overly sorry for yourself, I’.
She inhaled deeply, then straightened up, squared her shoulders, and scolded herself for allowing herself to fall into a slough of despond.
The next time I see you sinking into a slough of despond or starting to feel overly sorry for yourself, I'm going to kick you-with infinite respect, of course!
My rapid descent into the slough of despond was matched by an equally steep decline in mental stability.
I met with a gentleman so soon as I had got over the Slough of Despond, who persuaded me that I might, in the village before me, find a man that would take off my burden.