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/dˈɛsprɪt/ /dˈɛspərɪt/ Listen

Desperate

adjective

1.

Arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope. Synonym: despairing. "The last despairing plea of the condemned criminal" , "A desperate cry for help" , "Helpless and desperate--as if at the end of his tether" , "Her desperate screams"

2.

Desperately determined. Synonym: do-or-die. "A do-or-die conflict"

3.

(of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair. "Taken hostage of desperate men"

4.

Showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort. Synonym: heroic. "The desperate gallantry of our naval task forces marked the turning point in the Pacific war" , "They took heroic measures to save his life"

5.

Showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire. "A desperate need for recognition"

6.

Fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless. Synonym: dire. "On all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel" , "A dire emergency"

noun

1.

A person who is frightened and in need of help.

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Desperate" Quotes from Famous Books

... results had been even greater than he had dared to hope. When Saturday came, it seemed to him that the crisis in his work had been reached. The Holy Spirit and the Satan of rum seemed to rouse up to a desperate conflict. The more interest in the meetings, the more ferocity and vileness outside. The saloon men no longer concealed their feelings. Open threats of violence were made. Once during the week Gray and his little company of helpers were assailed with missiles ...

— In His Steps • Charles M. Sheldon

... dreaded to enfeeble the little frame already almost destitute of life. But he no longer remained undecided, and straightway dispatched Rosalie for a dozen leeches. And he did not attempt to conceal from the mother that this was a desperate remedy which might save or kill her child. When the leeches were brought in, her heart failed ...

— A Love Episode • Emile Zola

... knowledge, its great achievements, and its wisdom, and by stupidly or dishonestly magnifying its vices, its misery, its ignorance, its great slothfulness, and its folly; it is apt to be the way of the woeful, the unprosperous, the desperate—especially the way of such as find escape from the bore of routine life in the excitements of unrest, turbulence, and change; the past, they say, was all wrong, for it produced the present and the present is thoroughly bad—let us destroy it, ...

— Manhood of Humanity. • Alfred Korzybski

... for a couple of minutes, securing a bottle of Bass and then boarding the guard's van when the train was moving off. On one of these successful forays I saw J—— send three respectable people sprawling on their backs as he violently collided with them in his desperate efforts to overtake the receding train. The victims slowly got up and some nasty remarks about J—— were wafted to us over the veldt. We had a couple of cooks. One of them was an American who had served in the Cuban war, ...

— With Methuen's Column on an Ambulance Train • Ernest N. Bennett

... not play with mine anger, do not Wretch, I come to know that desperate Fool that drew thee From thy fair life; be wise, and lay ...

— The Maids Tragedy • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

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