desperate

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from Latin dēspērātus, past participle of dēspērō (“to be without hope”)

PronunciationEdit

(UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹət/
Audio (US)
(file)

AdjectiveEdit

desperate (comparative more desperate, superlative most desperate)

In dire need of something.
I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.
Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
- c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:
  Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 16, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
  “[…] 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.”
I was so desperate at one point, I even went to see a loan shark.
Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
- 1879, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “GOLDSMITH, Oliver”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] ‎^[1], Volume X, Ninth edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 761, column 2:
  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.
a desperate effort
Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.
a desperate disease; desperate fortune
Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
- c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:
  a desperate offendress against nature
- 1876, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “BUNYAN, John”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] ‎^[2], Volume IV, Ninth edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 526, column 2:
  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 lived, and for whose opinion he had a great respect.
Extremely intense.
(Can we add an example for this sense?)

NounEdit

desperate (plural desperates)

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

Derived termsEdit

desperation

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

filled with despair

Arabic: يَائِس‎ (yāʾis), قَانِط‎ (qāniṭ)
Armenian: հուսահատ (hy) (husahat)
Belarusian: ро́спачны (róspačny)
Bulgarian: отча́ян (bg) (otčájan)
Catalan: desesperat
Chinese:
Mandarin: 絕望 (zh), 绝望 (zh) (juéwàng)
Czech: zoufalý (cs) m
Danish: desperat
Dutch: wanhopig (nl), vertwijfeld (nl), radeloos (nl), hopeloos (nl), desperaat (nl)
Finnish: epätoivoinen (fi)
French: désespéré (fr)
Georgian: სასოწარკვეთილი (sasoc̣arḳvetili)
German: verzweifelt (de)
Greek: απελπισμένος (el) (apelpisménos)
Hebrew: מיואש‎ (miuash)
Italian: disperato (it)
Japanese: 絶望的な (ぜつぼうてきな, zetsubōteki na)

Khmer: ជាខ្លាំង (ciəklĕəng)
Korean: 필사적 인 (pilsajeogin), 절망적 인 (jeolmangjeogin)
Latin: despērātus
Macedonian: очаен (očaen)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: desperat

Nynorsk: desperat
Polish: zdesperowany (pl) m
Portuguese: desesperado (pt)
Russian: отча́янный (ru) (otčájannyj)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: очајан

Roman: očajan (sh)
Slovak: zúfalý
Slovene: obupen
Spanish: desesperado (es) m
Ukrainian: розпа́чливий (rozpáčlyvyj)

having reckless abandon

Armenian: հանդուգն (hy) (handugn)
Bulgarian: безразсъден (bg) (bezrazsǎden)
Catalan: desesperat
Finnish: epätoivoinen (fi)
Khmer: ជាខ្លាំង (cie klang), ដែលសាហាវ (dael saahaav)

Malay: terdesak
Maori: nanakia
Portuguese: desesperado (pt)
Russian: безрассу́дный (ru) (bezrassúdnyj)

extremely intense

Finnish: epätoivoinen (fi)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked