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desperate

adj
/ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹɪt/CA/ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹət/

Etymology

From Middle English desperat(e) (“desperate”), borrowed from Latin dēspērātus, perfect passive participle of dēspērō (“to be without hope”), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix). The noun is derived from the adjective or from the Latin source through substantivization, see -ate (noun-forming suffix).

  1. derived from dēspērātus
  2. inherited from desperat — “desperate”

Definitions

  1. In dire need (of something)

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

    • 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

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

    • 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.
    • “[…] 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.”

  3. Beyond hope, leaving little reason for hope

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

    • a desperate disease; desperate fortune
  4. ›+ 5 more definitions

    1. Involving or employing extreme measures, without regard to danger or safety

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

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

    2. Extremely bad

      Extremely bad; outrageous, shocking; intolerable.

      • a desperate offendress against nature
      • 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[…]

    3. Intense

      Intense; extremely intense.

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

    4. Desperately.

    5. A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a…

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

The neighborhood

Derived

desperately, desperateness, desperate times call for desperate measures, desperate times require desperate measures, desperation, nondesperate, overdesperate, undesperate

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at desperate. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01desperate02perilous03dangerous04harm05detriment06hurt07painful08requiring09requirement10necessity

A definitional loop anchored at desperate. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at desperate

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA