| / English Dictionary |
DESPERATE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who is frightened and in need of help
Example:
they prey on the hopes of the desperate
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("desperate" is a kind of...):
unfortunate; unfortunate person (a person who suffers misfortune)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "desperate"):
goner; toast (a person in desperate straits; someone doomed)
Derivation:
despair (abandon hope; give up hope; lose heart)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken in desperation as a last resort
Example:
they took heroic measures to save his life
Synonyms:
desperate; heroic
Classified under:
Similar:
brave; courageous (possessing or displaying courage; able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
Example:
a dire emergency
Synonyms:
desperate; dire
Classified under:
Similar:
critical (being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire
Example:
a desperate need for recognition
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
imperative (requiring attention or action)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope
Example:
her desperate screams
Synonyms:
despairing; desperate
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
hopeless (without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Desperately determined
Example:
a do-or-die conflict
Synonyms:
desperate; do-or-die
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
resolute (firm in purpose or belief; characterized by firmness and determination)
Sense 6
Meaning:
(of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair
Example:
taken hostage of desperate men
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
dangerous; unsafe (involving or causing danger or risk; liable to hurt or harm)
Context examples:
He could have the vessel drive to land; but if it were unfriendly land, wherein he was not free to move, his position would still be desperate.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Thornton’s desperate struggle was fresh-written on the earth, and Buck scented every detail of it down to the edge of a deep pool.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
For an hour or more after we entered the wood, there was a desperate struggle in which for a time we hardly held our own.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It was no easy task to move Von Bork, for he was a strong and a desperate man.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Julia's match became a less desperate business than he had considered it at first.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Yet their position was a desperate one.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
One moment surely might be spared; and, so desperate should be the exertion of her strength, that, unless secured by supernatural means, the lid in one moment should be thrown back.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
When fate wronged me, I had not the wisdom to remain cool: I turned desperate; then I degenerated.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The sort of desperate calmness with which this was said, lasted no longer than while she spoke, and was immediately followed by a return of the same excessive affliction.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Who had an interest unless it was—I know Sir Lothian Hume to be a desperate man.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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