Dismal vs Despair - What's the difference?
dismal | despair |
Disappointingly inadequate.
* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
, title= Gloomy and bleak.
Depressing.
*, chapter=12
, title= (obsolete) To give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of.
* Milton
(obsolete) To cause to despair.
To be hopeless; to have no hope; to give up all hope or expectation.
* Bible, 2 Corinthians i. 8
Loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.
That which is despaired of.
As an adjective dismal
is disappointingly inadequate.As a verb despair is
to give up as beyond hope or expectation; to despair of.As a noun despair is
loss of hope; utter hopelessness; complete despondency.dismal
English
Adjective
(en adjective)Liverpool 0-1 West Brom, passage=Liverpool's efforts thereafter had an air of desperation as their dismal 2012 league form continued.}}
Mr. Pratt's Patients, passage=So, after a spell, he decided to make the best of it and shoved us into the front parlor. 'Twas a dismal sort of place, with hair wreaths, and wax fruit, and tin lambrekins, and land knows what all. It looked like a tomb and smelt pretty nigh as musty and dead-and-gone.}}
Usage notes
* Nouns to which "dismal" is often applied: failure, performance, state, record, place, result, scene, season, year, economy, future, fate, weather, news, condition, history.Synonyms
* See alsoDerived terms
* dismal sciencedespair
English
Verb
(en verb)- I would not despair the greatest design that could be attempted.
- We despaired even of life.
Noun
- He turned around in despair , aware that he was not going to survive