As a verb: loses hope in the third person; as a noun: plural of despond, meaning instances of hopelessness or the Slough of Despond.
Third person singular present tense of 'despond', or rarely used as a plural noun form, maintaining the root meaning from Latin 'despondere'.
Bunyan's 'Slough of Despond' has made 'desponds' (the places or states of despair) resonate through 400 years of English literature—it's how writers describe emotional swamps that trap characters.
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