Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - despite

Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. You use despite to introduce a fact which makes the other part of the sentence surprising. The National Health Service has visibly deteriorated, despite increased spending... She will stand by husband, despite reports that he sent another woman love notes. = in spite of PREP: PREP n/-ing 2. If you do something despite yourself you do it although you did not really intend or expect to. Despite myself, Harry’s remarks had caused me to stop and reflect. PREP: PREP pron-refl