different between despondent vs comfortless

English

Etymology

From Latin despondere (“to give up, to abandon”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??sp?nd?nt/

Adjective

despondent (comparative more despondent, superlative most despondent)

1. In low spirits from loss of hope or courage.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sad

   • 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.

Derived terms

• despondency

Synonyms

• crestfallen
• despairing
• disconsolate
• disheartened
• dejected
• downcast
• gloomy
• heartsick
• hopeless
• miserable
• sad

Antonyms

• cheerful
• hopeful

Translations

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /de?s?pon.dent/, [d?e?s??p?n?d??n?t?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /des?pon.dent/, [d??s?p?n?d??n?t?]

Verb

d?spondent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of d?sponde?

English

Etymology

comfort +? -less

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t.l?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?t.l?s/

Adjective

comfortless (comparative more comfortless, superlative most comfortless)

1. (of a person) Deprived of comfort; uncomforted.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, John 14:18,^[1]

     I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act II, Scene 3,^[2]

     The queen is comfortless, and we forgetful

     In our long absence: pray, do not deliver

     What here you've heard to her.

   • 1862, Christina Rossetti, “Mirage” in Goblin Market and other Poems,^[3]

     The hope I dreamed of was a dream,

     Was but a dream; and now I wake,

     Exceeding comfortless, and worn, and old,

     For a dream's sake.

2. (of a thing) Offering no comfort; uncomforting.
   • c. 1693, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act III, Scene 1,^[4]

     Alas, poor heart, that kiss is comfortless

     As frozen water to a starved snake.

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter V,^[5]

     I did not dare return to the apartment which I inhabited, but felt impelled to hurry on, although drenched by the rain which poured from a black and comfortless sky.

   • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 4,^[6]

     In comfortless, damp blankets we got through the night.