Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use desperately in a sentence

40 example sentences · adverb

Desperately means in a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly. Example: “She desperately grabbed at the nearby branches as she heard the branch she was standing on start to snap.”

Examples of desperately by meaning

adverbIn a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly.

  • She desperately grabbed at the nearby branches as she heard the branch she was standing on start to snap.
  • I could desperately do with some coffee right now.
  • The patient, who lumbers painfully, has a question: She desperately wants a knee replacement, but doesn’t understand why three doctors have rejected her.2007 August 21, Jan Hoffman, “Soldiering On, Home to Home, in a Squeezed Health System”, in The New York Times

adverbExtremely.

  • The race for silver medal was desperately close, they needed a photo finish to separate the runners.
  • The trouble is, they have almost every one of their facts totally and desperately wrong.1991 February 11, Jeffery R. Nickel, “Going To The Chapel”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 29, page 9

More sentences with desperately

  • She desperately yelled at her young daughter, frantic to make her realize what she had done.From the entry realize
  • The fruitless woman desperately wanted to have children.From the entry fruitless
  • I tried desperately to jog my memory.From the entry jog
  • With their losses quickly mounting, Russian forces in Soloviove desperately needed reinforcements.2024 May 24th, “Reporting from Ukraine” (channel name), 23 May: RUSSIANS DECIMATED! Ukrainians Launch Successful Counterattacks! | War in…. From the entry Soloviove
  • Like many folks, I’ve been desperately trying to ferret out some Zen in this frustrating COVIDy world.2022 February 14, Starshine Roshell, “Santa Barbara School Teacher’s Rant Is All Wrong”, in Santa Barbara Independent. From the entry covidy
  • You desperately mutter, “Never eat shredded wheat,” whipping your head around.2020 April 1, Andrea Josic, Nathaniel Crouch, Zachary Roman, “Help deliver a secret message to Rye’s president”, in The Eyeopener, volume…. From the entry never eat shredded wheat
  • But then again, after Amin’s regime, which had left the Ganda desperately impoverished, things were changing.2020, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, The First Woman, Oneworld Publications, page 394. From the entry Ganda
  • I was at university in Paris for three months and I missed my friends desperately.2020, Grace Campbell, Amazing Disgrace: A Book About "Shame". From the entry gap yah
  • We desperately wanted their relationship to develop naturally and not be a case of instalove.2018, Piper Rayne, Birth of a Baby Daddy, unnumbered page. From the entry instalove
  • I was enthralled with the exciting new world around me and tried desperately to fit in.2014 August 29, Ruzwana Bashir, “The untold story of how a culture of shame perpetuates abuse. I know, I was a victim”, in The Guardian. From the entry fit in
  • The photo book represented my promise to her—a new life—and she desperately clung to that promise.2012, Cindy Champnella, The 12 Gifts of Life, →ISBN. From the entry life
  • “Look, Miss,” Unique said desperately, “you two don’t have to play good cop-bad cop with me.2012, E.N. Joy, And You Call Yourself a Christian, Urban Books, →ISBN. From the entry good cop-bad cop
  • The birds squawked desperately, their nests high up in the inaccessible shrubs.2010, Gabriela Mistral, Selected Prose and Prose-Poems, page 104. From the entry jungular
  • I've had many problems lately and I desperately need your help.2009, Wendy Conklin, Differentiation Strategies for Language Arts, →ISBN, page 144. From the entry dentophobia
  • But that's a designation that the year-old company desperately wants to avoid.2007 October 15, “Video Napster?”, in Newsweek. From the entry Napster
  • They were desperately trying to find some explanation for their excessiveness.2005, Helge Janssen, Tell Tale, page 91. From the entry poppers
  • I was desperately searching for the emergency cord when I landed spread-eagle in the frozen creek bed.2005, Dan Rodgers, I Thought You Brought the Can Opener. From the entry foof
  • Desperately injured, sick, or miserable workers used the "black pill," an overdose of opium, to commit suicide.2005, Volney Steele, Bleed, Blister, and Purge. From the entry black pill
  • This is the stuff we pray desperately will not be found.2001, James Fenton, “Wilfred Owen's Juvenilia” (chapter 2), in The Strength of Poetry, Oxford University Press, published 2003, →ISBN…. From the entry juvenilia
  • ANYONE who first stumbles upon ash is bound to want to SAVE these desperately unhappy people.1998, im__naked, “everybody`s got 2 cents RIGHT?”, in alt.support.grief (Usenet). From the entry asher
  • Desperately seeking validation, the biggest geek in the nation soon found enmity online.1997 December 30, Spewbacca, “The Olde Legend of Sirrah Palmjobe”, in alt.flame (Usenet), archived from the original on 03 Jun 2026. From the entry chickenpoop
  • If games are your life, the choice of a joystick is desperately important.1989, Microtimes, volume 6, page 140. From the entry joystick
  • Germany has surrendered to the Allies and the Japanese are desperately fighting for their lives.1988 [1981], Hualing Nieh Engle, translated by Jane Parish Yang and Linda Lappin, Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China, Boston: Beacon…. From the entry Pa-tung
  • GWF, well almost anyway, 40, bone-lonely, desperately needs a friend in Southern Maine.1979 December 22, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 18. From the entry bone
  • She decides that she desperately needs a new pair of jeans.1979 December 22, Andrea Loewenstein, “Home for the Holidays”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 10. From the entry bulgy
  • Nurse Cramer's face blanched and she turned to Dunbar desperately for aid.1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 171. From the entry blanch
  • He pretended that an alligator was behind him and swam desperately.1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 11, in The Yearling. From the entry dog paddle
  • It was the round of unessentials which all office-women know so desperately well.1917, Sinclair Lewis, The Job, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Part 2, Chapter 9, p. 133. From the entry unessentials
  • I had lied to Paddock about him, and the whole thing looked desperately fishy.1915 August–September, John Buchan, “The Milkman Sets Out on His Travels”, in The Thirty-Nine Steps, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood…. From the entry make a clean breast
  • Miss Gimblet nodded, and the curate, desperately conscious of his stockinged feet, advanced and shook hands awkwardly.1913, Norman Lindsay, A Curate in Bohemia, Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Co., published 1932, page 43. From the entry stockinged
  • This is a job like any other; it's one I love desperately but one that's also a tremendous amount of work.2023 October 3, Kate Hoad-Reddick, “I celebrated my parental leave on my LinkedIn, as I would for any new job”, in CBC News, archived from…. From the entry LinkedIn
  • “We desperately needed the nursing support because our ICUs are so inundated with critically ill Covid patients,” Brown said.2021 August 14, Christina Maxouris, “‘Bursting at the seams’: Full ICUs are creating a dangerous ER backlog and forcing hospitals to…. From the entry ill
  • Danny Boyle's T2 Trainspotting is everything I could reasonably have hoped for—scary, funny, desperately sad, with many a bold visual flourish.2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review—choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in The Guardian. From the entry many a
  • The breakthrough came after 63 minutes as United’s unorthodox defence desperately tried to hold off a spell of sustained pressure.2014 November 2, Daniel Taylor, “Sergio Agüero strike wins derby for Manchester City against 10-man United”, in guardian.co.uk. From the entry hold off
  • I hear him say, “We have to fight for our life, boys, more desperately than at Shiloh and Vicksburg.2007, Margaret McMullan, When I Crossed No-Bob, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2009, →ISBN, page 70. From the entry peas and rice

Meaning of desperately

  1. adverb In a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly.
  2. adverb Extremely.

Full definition of desperately

Questions about desperately in a sentence

How do you use desperately in a sentence?
Desperately is used as an adverb. For example: “She desperately grabbed at the nearby branches as she heard the branch she was standing on start to snap.”
What is a short sentence with desperately?
“I tried desperately to jog my memory.”
What does desperately mean?
Desperately means in a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: desperately (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use desperately in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/desperately. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.