despair of

despair of (something)

To view a situation as hopeless. Considering her dire diagnosis, I despaired of grandma ever regaining her health.
See also: despair, of
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

despair of something

to give up all hope of something. Do not despair of his returning; I think we will see him again. I despair of ever seeing her again.
See also: despair, of
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

despair of

v.
To lose all hope for something or someone: The shipwrecked sailors despaired of being rescued. I have seen so much unfairness that I despair of a just world.
See also: despair, of
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • despair of (something)
  • contact with (one)
  • contact with a link to
  • have contact with (one)
  • a state of affairs
  • find (oneself) with (something)
  • find oneself with
  • at all times
  • go to (one's) glory
  • go to glory
References in classic literature
As, however, Rosa was already able to write a legible hand when Cornelius so uncautiously opened his heart, she did not despair of progressing quickly enough to write, after eight days at the latest, to the prisoner an account of his tulip.
Betsey, too, a spoiled child, trained up to think the alphabet her greatest enemy, left to be with the servants at her pleasure, and then encouraged to report any evil of them, she was almost as ready to despair of being able to love or assist; and of Susan's temper she had many doubts.
Sympathizing with Clara in all besides, she had no sympathy, as they sat together in the pleasant sunshine, with Clara's gloomy despair of the future.
George no sooner came home to his master's house than he met with Mrs Honour; to whom, having first sounded her with a few previous questions, he delivered the letter for her mistress, and received at the same time another from her, for Mr Jones; which Honour told him she had carried all that day in her bosom, and began to despair of finding any means of delivering it.
by Peter Renton, Lydiate Don't Despair DON'T despair of your tomorrow, It may not be a time of sorrow.
As the "no, no, no" continued, I interrupted f the presenting students and spoke about the obvious and sad conjunction between text and life: We were hearing the voice of despair nearby discussing the despair of Wiesel during his imprisonment.
Elsewhere Allah says: "Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the mercy of Allah.
Paxman said that humour helped people feel "reconnected with the political process they so despair of...".
In such a case, he would keep the following Quranic verse in his mind: {Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves [by sinning], do not despair of the Mercy of Allah.
Furthermore, by this reading I suggest that in articulating this view through the 'higher' pseudonymous identity of Anti Climacus (the author of The Sickness unto Death), Kierkegaard creates a therapeutic hermeneutic which aims not only to alleviate the despair of his reader, but also to come to terms with his own difficulties in accepting the 'impossibility' of self-forgiveness.
After thirty years of seeking, she despaired of knowing God, but God did not despair of knowing her.
And there are genuine dangers in reproductive activity: maternal mortality, infant mortality, the fallout ("nuclear" in its insidious half-life) of divorce and custody, the despair of finding oneself the parent of children with a partner one does not love.
But growing up in the 1980s and coming out in the 1990s, as I did, I've always known enough to understand the despair of older friends who lost so many loved ones to the disease.
During the turbulent '60s and early '70s--with an unjust war, political assassinations, and corruption in high office tearing at the fabric of real-life society--the moral confusion and existential despair of films like The Graduate and Carnal Knowledge, Midnight Cowboy and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
We have put before the people of Northern Ireland a choice - hope of a lasting, fair political settlement for Northern Ireland, or the despair of a fresh generation of violence, hatred and intransigence.