hopeless

Hopeless means there is no chance left. A search called off on the ninth day because it had become hopeless, a court case your own lawyer begs you to drop, three-nil down with four minutes to play.

The commonest use in speech is much lighter: hopeless at something means very bad at it — I am hopeless at maths, he is hopeless with money. It is said about yourself as much as about anyone else, and it lands as affectionate rather than cruel. The other side of the word is the feeling: a hopeless patient is one nobody can save, a hopeless person is one who has stopped believing anything will improve, and the sentence around it does the sorting. Watch the prepositions — hopeless AT a skill, hopeless WITH a thing or a person. Hopelessly slides further still: hopelessly lost, hopelessly in love, where it means nothing more than completely.

Phrases it lives in

• a hopeless romantic — someone who keeps believing in perfect love however the evidence goes