About The Word Desperate

Bay Area Crosswords

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Desperate

Desperate Meaning & Definition
Desperate Definition And Meaning

What's The Definition Of Desperate?

[n] a person who is frightened and in need of help; "they prey on the hopes of the desperate"
[adj] showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort; "made a last desperate attempt to reach the climber"; "the desperate gallantry of our naval task forces marked the turning point in the Pacific war"- G.C.Marshall; "they took heroic measures to save his life"
[adj] fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless; "a desperate illness"; "on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel"- G.C.Marshall; "a dire emergency"
[adj] showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire; "felt a desperate urge to confess"; "a desperate need for recognition"
[adj] arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope; "a despairing view of the world situation"; "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"
[adj] desperately determined; "do-or-die revolutionaries"; "a do-or-die conflict"
[adj] (of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair; "a desperate criminal"; "taken hostage of desperate men"

Synonyms | Synonyms for Desperate: brave | courageous | critical | dangerous | despairing | dire | do-or-die(a) | fearless | heroic | hopeless | imperative | resolute | unsafe

Related Terms | Find terms related to Desperate: accident-prone | aching for | acute | affording no hope | amok | apathetic | atrocious | bacchic | baffled | balked | berserk | bleak | breakneck | careless | cheerless | climacteric | comfortless | compelling | concentrated | corybantic | craving | critical | crucial | crying | dangerous | desirous of | despairing | despondent | desponding | devil-may-care | Dionysiac | dire | disconsolate | dismal | exquisite | fierce | foiled | foolhardy | forlorn | frantic | frenetic | frenzied | frustrated | furious | grave | great | grim | hard pressed | hard up | harum-scarum | hasty | hazardous | headlong | heinous | hopeless | hotheaded | hurried | impetuous | in despair | in desperate straits | in extremis | in extremities | like one possessed | mad | madding | maenadic | maniac | maniacal | monstrous | overeager | overenthusiastic | overzealous | panic-stricken | perilous | pinched | precarious | precipitant | precipitate | precipitous | pressing | rabid | raging | ranting | rash | raving | raving mad | reckless | running wild | scandalous | serious | shocking | slap-bang | slapdash | sorely pressed | stark-raving mad | straitened | tenuous | terrible | thwarted | uncontrollable | unhopeful | up against it | urgent | vehement | venturesome | vicious | violent | wanton | wild | without hope | wretched

See Also | goner | unfortunate | unfortunate person

Desperate In Webster's Dictionary

\Des"per*ate\, a. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See {Despair}, and cf. {Desperado}.] 1. Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [Obs.] I am desperate of obtaining her. --Shak. 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; as, a desperate effort. ``Desperate expedients.'' --Macaulay. 4. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous; -- used to mark the extreme predominance of a bad quality. A desperate offendress against nature. --Shak. The most desperate of reprobates. --Macaulay. Syn: Hopeless; despairing; desponding; rash; headlong; precipitate; irretrievable; irrecoverable; forlorn; mad; furious; frantic.
\Des"per*ate\, n. One desperate or hopeless. [Obs.]

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