hopeless

modif.

1. Despairing

   despondent, despairing, desperate, forlorn, disconsolate, depressed, dejected, melancholy, pessimistic, cynical; see also sad 1.

2. Discouraging

   futile, unfortunate, threatening, bad, sinister, unyielding, irrevocable, irredeemable, incurable, beyond recall, past hope, past cure, irretrievable, vain, unmitigable, irreversible, irreparable, irreclaimable, irrecoverable, cureless, without hope, with no hope, impracticable, ill-fated, disastrous, menacing, foreboding, unfavorable, dying, worsening, past recall, tragic, fatal, desperate, helpless, unavailing, lost, unreclaimable, to no avail, forlorn, remediless, relapsing, abandoned, gone, empty, idle, recidivous, valueless, incorrigible, useless, unserviceable, pointless, worthless, insurmountable; see futile 1, impossible 1.

   Antonyms favorable*, heartening, cheering.

hopeless means having no expectation of, or showing no sign of, a favorable outcome a hopeless situation; despondent implies a being in very low spirits because of a loss of hope and a sense of futility about continuing one's efforts her rejection of his proposal left him despondent; despairing implies utter loss of hope and may suggest the extreme dejection that results the despairing lover spoke of suicide; desperate implies such despair as makes one resort to extreme measures hunger makes men desperate