Definition of "pessimism" []

• A tendency to stress the negative or unfavorable or to take the gloomiest possible view: "We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach” ( Margo Jones). (noun)
• The doctrine or belief that this is the worst of all possible worlds and that all things ultimately tend toward evil. (noun)
• The doctrine or belief that the evil in the world outweighs the good. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I used just now the term pessimism; but that was doubtless in a great measure because I have been turning over a collection of the extraordinarily vivid drawings of Honoré Daumier."
• "(Geismar, p. 183.) 16 Two striking stories in which the pessimism is the central thesis, and contemporaneous with White Fang, are "The Sun Dog Trail," and "The White Man's Way," both published in a later collection."
• "Lost in the pessimism is the fact that 20 out of 24 S&P 500 technology companies that have reported earnings so far have beaten Wall Street estimates."