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Dismay vs Hopeless - What's the difference?

dismay | hopeless |

As a noun dismay

is a sudden or complete loss of courage and firmness in the face of trouble or danger; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits; consternation.

As a verb dismay

is to disable with alarm or apprehensions; to depress the spirits or courage of; to deprive of firmness and energy through fear; to daunt; to appall; to terrify.

As an adjective hopeless is

without hope; despairing; not expecting anything positive.

dismay

English

Noun

(-)
  • A sudden or complete loss of courage and firmness in the face of trouble or danger; overwhelming and disabling terror; a sinking of the spirits; consternation.
  • Condition fitted to dismay; ruin.
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To disable with alarm or apprehensions; to depress the spirits or courage of; to deprive of firmness and energy through fear; to daunt; to appall; to terrify.
  • * Bible, Josh. i. 9
  • Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed .
  • * Fairfax
  • What words be these? What fears do you dismay ?
  • To render lifeless; to subdue; to disquiet.
  • * Spenser
  • Do not dismay yourself for this.
  • To take dismay or fright; to be filled with dismay.
  • * 1592 , , III. iii. 1:
  • Dismay not, princes, at this accident,

    hopeless

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Without hope; despairing; not expecting anything positive.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • I am a woman, friendless, hopeless .
  • *, chapter=15
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
  • Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate.
  • Without talent, not skilled
  • He's a hopeless writer, but can draw very well.

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "hopeless" is often applied: case, situation, romantic, love, cause, person, despair, life, undertaking, alcoholic, man, endeavor, place, pain, agony, project.

    Synonyms

    * desperate

    Antonyms

    * hopeful

    References

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