as in despondently
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Recent Examples of despairingly
O’Farrell’s words skip lightly on some pages, then pace with anxiety, then finally trudge along despairingly.
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The Know, Denver Post, 31 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for despairingly
Adverb
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Semi-autobiographical in one sense and despondently poetic in the other, The Stranger launched Camus’ career as a major 20th century author.—
Adverb
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Now, the 36-year-old grower, who inherited the generational plot from his father, can only wave his arm dejectedly at row after row of weak, spindly stems, the result of catastrophic floods that swept the South Asian nation’s agricultural heartland to a degree not experienced in three decades.—
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Immediately after his defeat, Medvedev violently smashed a racket in frustration and sat dejectedly on his chair for several minutes before leaving the court.—
Adverb
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Its inhabitants were left without light or heat during a bitterly cold polar vortex, with temperatures as low as 2 degrees Fahrenheit.—
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Hasina was bitterly criticized by both her opponents and independent critics for sending Zia to jail.—
Adverb
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For their part, Democratic leaders spoke mournfully of limits, of energy shortages, of national decline, of a crisis of confidence itself.—
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Based on the Dylan Thomas prose poem of the same name, published in 1952, the film lovingly and mournfully depicts the boyhood Christmastime of an old Welshman, tenderly and a tad mischievously embodied by Elliott.—
Adverb
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Tarun would tease her, and my mother would look sorrowfully toward Kavitha, as if the two of them now shared some womanly burden.—
Adverb
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Mia plaintively asks Philip at one particularly vulnerable moment.—
Adverb
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Elsa / Getty Images The Atlanta Falcons’ struggles had head coach Raheem Morris ruefully quoting his former boss and friend, Mike Tomlin.—
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Safdie says as Johnson laughs ruefully.—
Adverb
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Ibsen’s title character is a spoiled, headstrong young woman who, newly and unhappily married to a dull scholar, enacts a Machiavellian scheme to advance his career and her social standing, with catastrophic results.—
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In season 3 of The Gilded Age, Gladys unhappily marries the Duke of Buckingham.—
Cite this Entry
“Despairingly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/despairingly. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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