核心畫面
Hope + -less: you look at the thing and there is simply no hope left in it. Not "it will be hard" — you can look as carefully as you like and find no opening at all, so effort stops paying.
可以想成 hope（希望）加上 -less（沒有）：你看著這件事，裡面一絲希望都找不到。它不是「有點難」，而是「怎麼…更多收起
可以想成 hope（希望）加上 -less（沒有）：你看著這件事，裡面一絲希望都找不到。它不是「有點難」，而是「怎麼找都沒有縫」——所以再怎麼努力也不會有回報。這個「裡面空掉了、沒有希望可放」的畫面，可以往兩邊延伸：一邊是事情本身沒希望，一邊是人心裡沒了希望，或是某個人做某件事永遠不會好起來。原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
hopelessadj/ˈhəʊplɪs/
- 1
Without hope; despairing; not expecting anything positive.
- I am a woman, friendless, hopeless.
- And he a prince; To marry him is hopeleſſe;
- 2
Giving no ground of hope; promising nothing desirable; desperate.
- My mind is a camera / Camela mon camela ambra / It brings into focus / The dreams of kings / And even the hopeless
- 3
Without talent, not skilled.
- He's a hopeless writer, but can draw very well.
- " It is a pure waste of time." "Not at all," Malone answered. "It has ventilated an evil. There were reporters in court. Surely some of them have some sense. They will note the injustice." "Not they," said Mailey. "The Press is hopeless. My God, what a responsibility these people take on themselves, and how little they guess the price that each will pay! I know."
- 4
Of an adverse condition, incurable.
- She is a hopeless romantic.
- He is a hopeless idler.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。