N. impossibility, what cannot, what can never be, sour grapes, hopelessness

V. be impossible, have no chance whatever, attempt impossibilities, square the circle, wash a blackamoor white, skin a flint, make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, make bricks without straw, have nothing to go upon, weave a rope of sand, build castles in the air, prendre la lune avec les dents, extract sunbeams from cucumbers, set the thames on fire, milk a he-goat into a sieve, catch a weasel asleep, rompre l'anguille au genou, be in two places at once

Adj. impossible, not possible, absurd, contrary to reason, unlikely, unreasonable, incredible, beyond the bounds of reason, beyond the bounds of possibility, beyond the realm of possibility, from which reason recoils, visionary, inconceivable, prodigious, unimaginable, inimaginable, unthinkable, impracticable unachievable, unfeasible, infeasible, insuperable, unsurmountable, insurmountable, unattainable, unobtainable, out of reach, out of the question, not to be had, not to be thought of, beyond control, desperate, incompatible, inaccessible, uncomeatable, impassable, impervious, innavigable, inextricable, self-contradictory, out of one's power, beyond one's power, beyond one's depth, beyond one's reach, beyond one's grasp, too much for, ultra crepidam

Phr. the grapes are sour, non possumus, non nostrum tantas componere lites, look for a needle in a haystack, chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin, il a le mer boire

N. hopelessness, despair, desperation, despondency, depression, pessimism, pessimist, job's comforter, bird of bad omen, bird of ill omen, abandonment, desolation, resignation, surrender, submission, hope deferred, dashed hopes, vain expectation, airy hopes &c, forlorn hope, gone case, dead duck, gone coon*, goner*, bad job, bad business, enfant perdu, gloomy horizon, black spots in the horizon, slough of despond, cave of despair, immedicabile vulnus

V. despair, lose all hope, give up all hope, abandon all hope, relinquish all hope, lose the hope of, give up the hope of, abandon the hope of, relinquish the hope of, give up, give over, yield to despair, falter, despond, jeter le manche apres la cognee, inspire despair, drive to despair, disconcert, dash one's hopes, crush one's hopes, destroy one's hopes, hope against hope, abandon, resign, surrender, submit

Adj. hopeless, desperate, despairing, gone, in despair, au desespoir, forlorn, desolate, inconsolable, broken hearted, unpromising, unpropitious, inauspicious, ill-omened, threatening, clouded over, out of the question, not to be thought of, impracticable, past hope, past cure, past mending, past recall, at one's last gasp, given up, given over, incurable, cureless, immedicable, remediless, beyond remedy, incorrigible, irreparable, irremediable, irrecoverable, irreversible, irretrievable, irreclaimable, irredeemable, irrevocable, ruined, undone, immitigable

Phr. "lasciate ogni speranza voi ch'entrate", its days are numbered, the worst come to the worst, "no change, no pause, no hope, yet i endure", "o dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon", "mene mene tekel upharson"