hopeless

/'houplis/

Thân thiện

The situation is hopeless.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Without hope; feeling or showing no expectation of positive outcome: Describes a situation or person's emotional state where there is no prospect of improvement, success, or comfort.
   • Certain to fail; having no possibility of success: Describes a task, plan, or situation that is doomed or impossible to manage effectively.
   • (Of a person) Incapable of learning or doing something competently; very bad at something: Used informally to describe a severe lack of skill or ability in a particular area.
   • Extremely bad; beyond remedy or reform: Used informally for emphasis to describe something of very poor quality or someone with an ingrained, unchangeable habit.

Examples of Usage

• Describing a feeling or situation:
  • He gave a hopeless sigh.
  • The search seemed hopeless after three days.
• Describing certain failure:
  • It's a hopeless plan from the start.
  • The situation is hopeless; we must evacuate.
• Describing incompetence:
  • I'm completely hopeless at cooking.
  • She's hopeless with technology.
• Emphasizing poor quality or an ingrained trait:
  • This report is a hopeless mess.
  • My brother is a hopeless optimist.

Advanced Usage

• "A hopeless case": A person or situation considered beyond help or reform.
  • The doctor considered the patient a hopeless case.
• "Hopelessly in love": So deeply in love that one feels or acts without rational control.
  • He was hopelessly in love with her.

Variants and Related Words

• Hopelessly (adverb): In a manner without hope or beyond remedy.
  • He is hopelessly lost.
  • The project was hopelessly behind schedule.
• Hopelessness (noun): The state or feeling of having no hope.
  • A feeling of hopelessness overwhelmed her.

Synonyms

• Desperate: Feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.
• Futile: Incapable of producing any useful result; pointless.
• Incompetent: Not having or showing the necessary skills to do something successfully.
• Incurable: Not able to be cured (of a person or habit); beyond reform.

Antonyms

• Hopeful: Feeling or inspiring optimism about a future event.
• Promising: Showing signs of future success.
• Competent: Having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.

Idioms and Common Phrases

• "Not have a hope in hell": To have no chance at all of succeeding (similar in meaning to a hopeless situation).
  • You don't have a hope in hell of winning that race.
• "Beyond hope": So bad that there is no possibility of improvement or recovery.
  • The old car is beyond hope; we should scrap it.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. (informal to emphasize how bad it is) beyond hope of management or reform
   • she handed me a hopeless jumble of papers
   • he is a hopeless romantic
2. certain to fail
   • the situation is hopeless
3. of a person unable to do something skillfully
   • I'm hopeless at mathematics
4. without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success
   • in an agony of hopeless grief
   • with a hopeless sigh he sat down