desperate

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   (of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair

   a desperate criminal

2. 2
   noun

   a person who is frightened and in need of help

   they prey on the hopes of the desperate

3. 3
   adj

   showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire

   felt a desperate urge to confess

4. 4
   adj

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

   I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.

5. 5
   adj

   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.

6. 6
   adj

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

   a desperate disease; desperate fortune

7. 7
   adj

   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.

8. 8
   adj

   Extremely bad; outrageous, shocking; intolerable.

   a desperate offendress against nature

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).