The Shadow knew that he was on the right trail; but it was one that would take time and might prove hopeless.

And other lyrics that he has been carrying with him for years often prove hopeless.

And when he proved hopeless, that made him meaner.

She was trying to resist being bullied, but against this man the struggle had already proved hopeless.

By the end of the block, the hunt proved hopeless.

Democracy, he writes, "is supposedly the long-term solution to our present difficulties", yet it is proving hopeless at thinking long term.

Adams must have had a terrible sense of direction, after so many years of searching his quest proved hopeless.

That proved hopeless, for North had to lose two club tricks and a trick in each red suit.

He started that way, with his men, on a chase that was bound to prove hopeless.

My efforts to return to D.C. for the weekend proved hopeless.