English

Adjective

hopeless ‎(comparative more hopeless, superlative most hopeless)

1. Without hope; despairing; not expecting anything positive.
   • William Shakespeare

     I am a woman, friendless, hopeless.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 15, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

2. Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate.

   a hopeless cause‎

3. 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

Translations

References

• hopeless in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• hopeless in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• hopeless at OneLook Dictionary Search