Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Desperate
1.
Without hope; given to despair; hopeless.
[Obs.]
I am
desperate
of obtaining her. Shakespeare
2.
Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable; past cure, or, at least, extremely dangerous;
as, a
desperate
disease; desperate
fortune.3.
Proceeding from, or suggested by, despair; without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious;
“Desperate expedients.” as, a
. desperate
effortMacaulay.
4.
Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous; – used to mark the extreme predominance of a bad quality.
A
desperate
offendress against nature. Shakespeare
Syn. – Hopeless; despairing; desponding; rash; headlong; precipitate; irretrievable; irrecoverable; forlorn; mad; furious; frantic.
Des′per-ate
,Noun.
One desperate or hopeless.
[Obs.]
Webster 1828 Edition
Desperate
DESPERATE
,Adj.
1.
Without hope.I am desperate of obtaining her.
2.
Without care of safety; rash; fearless of danger; as a desperate man. Hence, 3.
Furious, as a man in despair.4.
Hopeless; despaired of; lost beyond hope of recovery; irretrievable; irrecoverable; forlorn. We speak of a desperate case of disease, desperate fortunes, a desperate situation or condition.5.
In a popular sense, great in the extreme; as a desperate sot or fool.Definition 2024
desperate
desperate
English
Adjective
desperate (comparative more desperate, superlative most desperate)
- Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
- William Shakespeare
- Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- “[…] 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.”
- I was so desperate at one point, I even went to see a loan shark.
- William Shakespeare
- Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
- Macaulay
- desperate expedients
- a desperate effort
- Macaulay
- Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.
- a desperate disease; desperate fortune
- Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
- William Shakespeare
- a desperate offendress against nature
- Macaulay
- the most desperate of reprobates
- William Shakespeare
- Extremely intense.
(Can we add an example for this sense?)
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
filled with despair
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having reckless abandon
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extremely intense
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Anagrams
Latin
Verb
dēspērāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of dēspērō
References
- desperate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Félix Gaffiot (1934), “desperate”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.