HOPELESS

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hopeless mean? 

• HOPELESS (adjective)
  The adjective HOPELESS has 4 senses:

1. without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success

2. of a person unable to do something skillfully

3. certain to fail

4. (informal to emphasize how bad it is) beyond hope of management or reform

  Familiarity information: HOPELESS used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HOPELESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success

Context example:

with a hopeless sigh he sat down

Similar:

abject; unhopeful (showing utter resignation or hopelessness)

black; bleak; dim (offering little or no hope)

despairing; desperate (arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope)

despondent; heartsick (without or almost without hope)

forlorn (marked by or showing hopelessness)

futureless (having no prospect or hope of a future)

helpless; lost (unable to function; without help)

insoluble (without hope of solution)

Also:

discouraging (depriving of confidence or hope or enthusiasm and hence often deterring action)

pessimistic (expecting the worst possible outcome)

impossible (not capable of occurring or being accomplished or dealt with)

Antonym:

hopeful (having or manifesting hope)

Derivation:

hopelessness (the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Of a person unable to do something skillfully

Context example:

I'm hopeless at mathematics

Similar:

unskilled (not having or showing or requiring special skill or proficiency)

Derivation:

hopelessness (the despair you feel when you have abandoned hope of comfort or success)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Certain to fail

Context example:

the situation is hopeless

Similar:

impossible (not capable of occurring or being accomplished or dealt with)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(informal to emphasize how bad it is) beyond hope of management or reform

Context example:

he is a hopeless romantic

Similar:

bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

 Context examples 

She had the most delightful little voice, the gayest little laugh, the pleasantest and most fascinating little ways, that ever led a lost youth into hopeless slavery.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Oh, Lucy, Lucy, I cannot be angry with you, nor can I be angry with my friend whose happiness is yours; but I must only wait on hopeless and work.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Perhaps the situation was not hopeless.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Henry judged his case to be hopeless.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Then your case is not hopeless.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Thus, at the age of twenty-six, I was hopeless.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The situation is desperate, but not hopeless.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I'm afraid I am a hopeless realist.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 17 Item (HAMD-17) Depressed mood: sadness, hopeless, helpless, worthless.

(HAMD-17 - Depressed Mood, NCI Thesaurus)

Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 21 Item (HAMD-21) Depressed mood; sadness, hopeless, helpless, worthless.

(HAMD-21 - Depressed Mood, NCI Thesaurus)