Also, the Nigerian contestant's chances of winning "Miss Congeniality" were cruelly dashed.

A winner of the prestigious Wellcome Prize he was completing his doctoral thesis at Oxford University, and contemplating a career as a biomedical research scientist, when those hopes for a bright future were cruelly dashed.

But at that point hope is cruelly dashed, for the food he supplies is that terrible mound of quails.

But his hopes of a lift were cruelly dashed when the corpsman mentioned his next destination-an enclave even farther away.

As is usually the case when I begin to fantasize about sudden Croesian windfalls, my dreams are cruelly dashed as soon as I subject them to the sober review of seasoned professionals.

"All my hopes, so cruelly dashed to pieces!"

Of course, those hopes are cruelly dashed.

The expectations and hopes of those people and of many others, which were given life by the excellent judgment of the Vice-Chancellor of the High Court on 30 July, were cruelly dashed by the decision of the major City shareholders that the bank could not be reconstructed.

But hope was cruelly dashed when she found Matthew in front of his easel, both hands pressed to his head, his face contorted with pain.