desperate — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. In dire need (of something); having a dire need or desire.

   Examples

   I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.

   desperate to eat; desperate for attention

2. Being filled with, or in a state of, despair; hopeless.

   Examples

   I was so desperate at one point, I even went to see a loan shark.

   Since his exile she hath despised me most, Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, That I am desperate of obtaining her.

   More examples (2)

   “[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”

   But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.

3. Beyond hope, leaving little reason for hope; causing despair; extremely perilous.

   Examples

   a desperate disease; desperate fortune

4. Involving or employing extreme measures, without regard to danger or safety; reckless due to hopelessness.

   Examples

   In England his flute was not in request; there were no convents; and he was forced to have recourse to a series of desperate expedients.

   “I knew very well that when the Peruvian Indian does anything wrong it is because he is forced to it by oppression and made desperate by abuse,” replied Lucia.

   More examples (2)

   Humankind's global integration makes biological combat a weapon of choice for desperate killers, who are either suicidal or intend to infect others […]

   He dove into the rushing waters in a desperate effort to save her life.

5. Extremely bad; outrageous, shocking; intolerable.

   Examples

   a desperate offendress against nature

   More examples (2)

   The worst that can be laid to the charge of this poor youth, whom it has been the fashion to represent as the most desperate of reprobates, as a village Rochester, is, that he had a great liking for some diversions, quite harmless in themselves, but condemned by the rigid precisians among whom he lived, and for whose opinion he had a great respect.

   The letters which were of most importance were in half a dozen languages and in the desperate handwriting of the period. Eminent men in that age thought it - like Hamlet - a baseness to write fair. Often at the end of a page I have[…]

   She pictured having a boyfriend over and losing him when he saw her desperate taste in shampoo; however, the chances of that happening were slim.

   More examples (1)

   Whoever's writing the stuff on this has desperate handwriting, like they must be a doctor...

6. Intense; extremely intense.

   Examples

   She enraged some country ladies with three times her money, by a sort of desperate perfection which they found in her.

   More examples (1)

   For Liverpool, it capped six days of desperate disappointment after missing out on the Premier League to Manchester City by a single point then losing to this experienced, street-smart Real team.

Adverb

1. Desperately.

   Usage

   • US usage
   • dialectal

Noun

1. A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, addict, etc.

   Related words

   disparate

Adjective

1. arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope

   Synonyms

   despairing

   Examples

   a despairing view of the world situation

   the last despairing plea of the condemned criminal

   More examples (3)

   a desperate cry for help

   helpless and desperate — as if at the end of his tether

   her desperate screams

2. desperately determined

   Synonyms

   do-or-die

   Examples

   do-or-die revolutionaries

   a do-or-die conflict

3. (of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair

   Examples

   a desperate criminal

   taken hostage of desperate men

4. showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort

   Synonyms

   heroic

   Examples

   made a last desperate attempt to reach the climber

   they took heroic measures to save his life

5. showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire

   Examples

   felt a desperate urge to confess

   a desperate need for recognition

6. fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless

   Synonyms

   dire

   Examples

   a desperate illness

   a dire emergency

Noun

1. a person who is frightened and in need of help

   Broader terms

   unfortunateunfortunate person

   Examples

   they prey on the hopes of the desperate