ˈhōplə̇s adjective
1.
a.
(1) : devoid of hope : having no expectation of good : despairing
girls feel hopeless if they haven't a marriage at least in sight — Sidonie M. Gruenberg
three lonely and hopeless old women — Upton Sinclair
was never hopeless of anybody — Margaret Deland
(2) : reflecting or indicating lack of hope
gazed with lusterless, hopeless eyes — Jack London
b. : not susceptible of remedy or cure : incurable
should be aware of his responsibility if he declares a … patient hopeless — Journal American Medical Association
c. : being beyond redemption : offering no prospect of change or improvement
the dream of every magazine writer who is not a hopeless hack — Raymond Chandler
as an actor he is really hopeless
a hopeless extrovert, giving herself completely and trustingly to everyone — Holiday
a hopeless Anglophile — Richard Joseph
2.
a. : giving no ground for hope : promising nothing desirable : desperate
the situation looked hopeless indeed — C.B.Nordhoff & J.N.Hall
b. : incapable of solution, management, or accomplishment : impossible , insoluble
a hopeless task
had a hopeless jumble of papers on my hands — Phoenix Flame
the detective … whose redemption is hopeless — B.N.Cardozo
worked at depths that seemed hopeless fifty years ago — Waldemar Kaempffert
in hopeless conflict with religion — R.W.Murray
lucidity hopeless to find amid all the cluttering detail of advanced works — Geographical Journal
Synonyms: see despondent