desperate
/ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹɪt/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
California/ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹɪt/
desperate adjective: in dire need (of something); having a dire need or desire.
Adjective
desperate (comparative more desperate or (rare, proscribed) desperater, superlative most desperate or (proscribed) desperatest)
- 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
- 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.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Beyond hope, leaving little reason for hope; causing despair; extremely perilous.
- a desperate disease; desperate fortune
- 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.1879, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “GOLDSMITH, Oliver”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] , Ninth edition, Volume X, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 761, column 2
- “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.1904, Clorinda Matto de Turner, Birds Without a Nest: A Story of Indian Life and Priestly Oppression in Peru, page 218
- Extremely bad; outrageous, shocking; intolerable.
- a desperate offendress against naturec. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The worst that can be laid to the charge of this poor youth, whom it has been the fashion to represent as the most desperate of reprobates, as a village Rochester, is, that he had a great liking for some diversions, quite harmless in themselves, but condemned by the rigid precisians among whom he...1876, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “BUNYAN, John”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] , Ninth edition, Volume IV, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 526, column 2
- Intense; extremely intense.
- She enraged some country ladies with three times her money, by a sort of desperate perfection which they found in her.1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC
- 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.2022 May 28, Phil McCulty, “Liverpool 0-1 Real Madrid”, in BBC Sport
Adverb
desperate (comparative more desperate, superlative most desperate)
Noun
desperate (plural desperates)
- A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, addict, etc.
desperate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
desperate in Hindi
- desperate, despairing
- हताश hatāś
desperate in Tamil
- நம்பிக்கை இழந்த, நம்பிக்கையிழந்த, மிக இக்கட்டான, மிகக் கேடான, வெறி கொண்ட, வெறிகொண்ட
desperate in Urdu
- بدحال, ناامید, مایوس, بیتاب
desperate in Bengali
- দুর্দান্ত, মরিয়া, হতাশ, প্রচণ্ড
More languagesFewer languages
- desperate in Malayalam
- ആശയറ്റ, ഗതികെട്ട, നിരാശാജനകമായ
- desperate in Kannada
- ಕಟ್ಟಲೆತಪ್ಪಿದ, ನಂಬಿಕೆಯಳಿದ, ಹತಾಶೆಯ, ನಿರಾಶಪೂರ್ವಕವಾದ
- desperate in Arabic
- يَائِس yāʔis, قَانِط qāniṭ, مَيْئُوس مِنْهُ mayʔūs minhu
- desperate in Malay
- terdesak
- desperate in Indonesian
- kebelet
Examples of desperate in a sentence
- He dove into the rushing waters in a desperate effort to save her life.
- “[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question.2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
- Humankind's global integration makes biological combat a weapon of choice for desperate killers, who are either suicidal or intend to infect others […]2016, Hans-Martin Sass, Cultures in Bioethics, LIT Verlag Münster, →ISBN, page 239:
- The letters which were of most importance were in half a dozen languages and in the desperate handwriting of the period.1898, Longman's Magazine, page 161:
Forms of desperate
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more desperate |
| superlative | most desperate |
| superlative proscribed | desperatest |
| comparative proscribed (rare) | desperater |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more desperate |
| superlative | most desperate |
| Noun | |
| plural | desperates |
Origin of desperate
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).
Words formed from desperate
Questions about desperate
- What does desperate mean?
- Desperate means in dire need (of something); having a dire need or desire.
- What is desperate in Hindi?
- Desperate in Hindi is हताश (hatāś). See Desperate meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use desperate in a sentence?
- He dove into the rushing waters in a desperate effort to save her life.
- What part of speech is desperate?
- Desperate can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce desperate?
- Desperate is pronounced /ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹɪt/ (UK).
Words near desperate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: desperate (page history and authors); हताश (Hindi) (page history and authors); desperate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desperate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desperate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desperate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desperate (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-desperate.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-desperate.wav.
Cite this entry: “desperate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desperate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.