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Forlorn vs Despairing - What's the difference?

forlorn | despairing | Synonyms |

As verbs the difference between forlorn and despairing

is that forlorn is past participle of lang=en while despairing is present participle of lang=en.

As adjectives the difference between forlorn and despairing

is that forlorn is abandoned, left behind, deserted while despairing is feeling, expressing, or caused by despair; hopeless.

As a noun despairing is

a mood or display of despair.

forlorn

English

Verb

(head)
  • (obsolete)

    • Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Abandoned, left behind, deserted.
  • * (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
    • Of fortune and of hope at once forlorn .
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
    • Some say that ravens foster forlorn children.
  • Miserable, as when lonely being abandoned.
  • * (Oliver Goldsmith) (1730-1774)
    • For here forlorn and lost I tread.
  • * (1796-1859)
    • The condition of the besieged in the mean time was forlorn in the extreme.
  • * (Mowbray Thomson) (1832-1917)
    • She cherished the forlorn hope that he was still living in captivity
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=6, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.}}

    Derived terms

    * forlorn hope * forlornness * forlornly

    Synonyms

    * * (miserable ) forsaken

    despairing

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Feeling, expressing, or caused by despair; hopeless.

    • Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A mood or display of despair.
  • * (Thomas Carlyle)
    • But what things soever passed in him, when he ceased to see it; what ragings and despairings soever Teufelsdrockh's soul was the scene of, he has the goodness to conceal under a quite opaque cover of Silence.