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Webster 1913 Edition


Despond

De-spond′

Noun.
Despondency.
[Obs.]
The slough of
despond
.
Bunyan.

Webster 1828 Edition


Despond

DESPOND

, v.i.[L. To promise; literally, to throw to or forward.]
1.
To be cast down; to be depressed or dejected in mind; to fail in spirits.
I should despair, or at least despond.
2.
To lose all courage, spirit or resolution; to sink by loss of hope.
Others depress their own mind, and despond at the first difficulty.
Note. The distinction between despair and despond is well marked in the foregoing passage from Scott. But although despair implies a total loss of hope, which despond does not, at least in every case, yet despondency is followed by the abandonment of effort, or cessation of action, and despair sometimes impelss to violent action, even to rage.

Definition 2024


despond

despond

English

Verb

despond (third-person singular simple present desponds, present participle desponding, simple past and past participle desponded)

  1. To give up the will, courage, or spirit; to become dejected, lose heart.
    • 1867, John Conington, The Aeneid of Virgil, translation of original by Virgil, page 176:
      Yet still despond not, but proceed
      Along the path where fate may lead.
    • Scott's Letters
      I should despair, or at least despond.
    • John Locke
      Others depress their own minds, [and] despond at the first difficulty.
    • D. Webster
      We wish that [] desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that foundations of our national power still stand strong.

Translations

Noun

despond (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) Despondency.

Related terms

Synonyms