noun
despair; desperation; abandonment
Primarily used in the compound 自暴自棄 (じぼうじき), meaning a state of reckless despair or giving up on oneself. Rarely used alone in modern Japanese.
彼は自暴自棄になって仕事を辞めてしまった。
He fell into reckless despair and quit his job.
自暴自棄に陥ると、冷静な判断ができなくなる。
When you fall into desperation, you lose the ability to make calm judgments.
The kanji 自 (self) and 暴 (violent, reckless) combine to suggest a state of reckless self-abandonment. The exact historical derivation is uncertain; the word is mainly known through the compound 自暴自棄.