slough of despond

1. 1.

   (formal) extreme depression

   Broaderdepression

   formality

Questions about slough of despond

What does slough of despond mean?

slough of despond means "(formal) extreme depression".

Is slough of despond a common word?

slough of despond is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.