despair

But remember, despair isn’t activism—it’s just another impediment to progress.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

We danced because grief without community becomes isolation, and isolation is where despair does its best work.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026

Many of the factors behind these deaths of despair, including addiction, poor diet and stress, also contribute to people spending more of their lives in ill health.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

She invests the song’s complex storyline of submission and rebellion with pointed irony here and genuine despair there.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026

“Delightful bill. How much is this...ode to dark despair going to run you?”

From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen

Kakar despairs at the plight of Afghans who remain in Pakistan.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 28, 2024

Then Isabel’s despairs stack, pressing her to expand her inquiry beyond the United States and diagnose history’s gravest injuries.

From Salon ● Jan. 26, 2024

Now he despairs of the international community because it is not doing more to stop the fighting.

From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2024

Pedro Sánchez, the contractor, who also holds the honorary post of mayor of San Bartolomé, likewise despairs of the weak dollar that has slowed construction.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2023

He despairs of us, all of us, including the model, whose surreptitious gum chewing maddens him.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

Still, he kept laboring toward a perfection he didn’t always reach but never despaired of reaching.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026

But closer to the high-security perimeter, a crowd of worshippers despaired as police officers blocked their route.

From Barron's ● Jun. 7, 2026

As Aduba ran through scenes in which Chisholm triumphantly campaigned or despaired at the obstacles to her success, “You could hear a pin drop,” Blanchett said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025

You despaired because buying merchandise—both Fanatics’ own and products it retails—did not satiate your appetite to do e-commerce with this company.

From Slate ● Mar. 7, 2025

His rat soul longed inexplicably for it; he began to think that light was the only thing that gave life meaning, and he despaired that there was so little of it to be had.

From "The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread" by Kate DiCamillo

Crowther shares a few scraps of despairing, Plathian verse, but almost entirely neglects her unfinished posthumous memoir, published in 1974 as “My Story.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2026

As wars multiply, Pope Leo’s aides aren’t despairing about the possibilities of diplomacy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 21, 2026

This was Spurs in microcosm with mistake piled upon mistake – the self-destruct button pressed with despairing regularity.

From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2026

But Nina soon found herself despairing, once she realized she could not leave her hiding place.

From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026

He was frightened—for the despairing man in front of him, for himself, and his family.

From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt