Word.ws English Dictionary

despairing

UK/dɪˈspɛə.ɹɪŋ//dɪˈspɛɹ.ɪŋ/

despairing adjective: feeling, expressing, or caused by despair; hopeless. Also the present participle and gerund of despair.

Adjective

despairing (not comparable)

  1. Feeling, expressing, or caused by despair; hopeless.
    • He was beginning to forget his burdening, despairing mood of a short while ago.1964, Philip K. Dick, “FOUR”, in Clans of the Alphane Moon, United States: Ace Books, →OCLC; republished London: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996, →ISBN, page 39

Noun

despairing (plural despairings)

  1. A mood or display of despair.
    • But what things soever passed in him, when he ceased to see it; what ragings and despairings soever Teufelsdröckh's soul was the scene of, he has the goodness to conceal under a quite opaque cover of Silence.1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Sorrows of Teufelsdröckh”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 103

Also used as

despairing is also the present participle and gerund of despair.

Examples of despairing in a sentence

  • Sometimes inconsolability may occur in newborns and infants. If your baby is crying so much that you are worried or despairing, call your pediatrician and ask for help.
  • Some countries are despairing that the text does not require a full phase-out of fossil fuels.
  • He was beginning to forget his burdening, despairing mood of a short while ago.

All 10 example sentences with despairing

Forms of despairing

pluraldespairings

Origin of despairing

From Middle English despeyringe, equivalent to despair + -ing.

Words formed from despairing

Phrases with despairing

Questions about despairing

What does despairing mean?
Despairing means feeling, expressing, or caused by despair; hopeless.
What part of speech is despairing?
Despairing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce despairing?
Despairing is pronounced /dɪˈspɛə.ɹɪŋ/ (UK).

Words near despairing in the dictionary

  1. despairest
  2. despaireth
  3. despairful
  4. despairfully
  5. despairfulness
  6. despairing
  7. despairingly
  8. despairingness
  9. despairings
  10. despairs
  11. despam

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: despairing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-despairing.oga.

Cite this entry: “despairing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/despairing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.