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Despondent vs Indifferent - What's the difference?

despondent | indifferent |

As an adjective despondent

is in low spirits from loss of hope or courage.

As a verb indifferent is

.

despondent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • In low spirits from loss of hope or courage.
  • *
  • *:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious, despondent , miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.

    • Synonyms

    * despairing * disconsolate * disheartened * dejected * downcast * gloomy * miserable * sad

    Antonyms

    * cheerful * hopeful

    indifferent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not caring or concerned; uninterested, apathetic.
    • He was indifferent to the proposal, since it didn't affect him, either way.
  • Mediocre, usually used negatively in modern usage.
    • The long distance and the indifferent roads made the journey impossible.
    The performance of Blue Jays has been '''indifferent'' this season.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • The staterooms are in indifferent order.
  • Having no preference or bias, being impartial.
    • ''I am indifferent between the two plans.
  • * Addison
    • indifferent in his choice to sleep or die
  • Not making a difference; without significance or importance.
    • Even if one appliance consumes an indifferent amount of energy when left on stand-by overnight, together they can represent 10% of the electricity demand of a household.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Dangers are to me indifferent .
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • Everything in the world is indifferent but sin.
  • * Nathaniel Hawthorne
    • His slightest and most indifferent acts were odious in the clergyman's sight.
  • (mechanics) Being in the state of neutral equilibrium.

    • Quotations

    * , act 4, scene 1: *: Let their heads be sleekly combed their blue coats brushed and their garters of an indifferent knit

    Adverb

  • (obsolete) To some extent, in some degree (intermediate between very'' and ''not at all ); moderately, tolerably, fairly.
    • The face of the Moon appearing to me to be full of indifferent high mountains...

    Usage notes

    * Now obsolete, but very common c. 1600-1730.

    References

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