Despair is the feeling of not having any hope left. If you just found out that you're having a test in math and you hadn't studied at all, you might feel despair, or despair of any hope that you can pass it.
Despair can also refer to someone or something that causes you to worry or be sad. Unfortunately, some children are the despair of their parents. The verb despair means to lose hope. Despair is from Latin desperare "to be without hope," from the prefix de- "without" plus sperare "to hope," from spes "hope."
