desperate
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
desperate
adj 1: arising from or marked by despair or loss of hope; "a
despairing view of the world situation"; "the last
despairing plea of the condemned criminal"; "a desperate
cry for help"; "helpless and desperate--as if at the end
of his tether"; "her desperate screams" [syn:
{despairing}, {desperate}]
2: desperately determined; "do-or-die revolutionaries"; "a do-
or-die conflict" [syn: {desperate}, {do-or-die(a)}]
3: (of persons) dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency
or despair; "a desperate criminal"; "taken hostage of
desperate men"
4: showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously
undertaken in desperation as a last resort; "made a last
desperate attempt to reach the climber"; "the desperate
gallantry of our naval task forces marked the turning point
in the Pacific war"- G.C.Marshall; "they took heroic measures
to save his life" [syn: {desperate}, {heroic}]
5: showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of
great need or desire; "felt a desperate urge to confess"; "a
desperate need for recognition"
6: fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless; "a desperate
illness"; "on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate
situation due to lack of materiel"- G.C.Marshall; "a dire
emergency" [syn: {desperate}, {dire}]
n 1: a person who is frightened and in need of help; "they prey
on the hopes of the desperate"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Desperate \Des"per*ate\, a. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare.
See {Despair}, and cf. {Desperado}.]
1. Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
I am desperate of obtaining her. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous;
irretrievable; past cure, or, at least, extremely
dangerous; as, a desperate disease; desperate fortune.
[1913 Webster]
3. Proceeding from, or suggested by, despair; without regard
to danger or safety; reckless; furious; as, a desperate
effort. "Desperate expedients." --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
4. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous; -- used to mark the
extreme predominance of a bad quality.
[1913 Webster]
A desperate offendress against nature. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
The most desperate of reprobates. --Macaulay.
Syn: Hopeless; despairing; desponding; rash; headlong;
precipitate; irretrievable; irrecoverable; forlorn; mad;
furious; frantic.
[1913 Webster]
from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
DESPERATE. Of which there is no hope.
2. This term is used frequently, in making an inventory of a decedent's
effects, when a debt is considered so bad that there is no hope of
recovering it. It is then called a desperate debt, and, if it be so
returned, it will be prima facie, considered as desperate. See Toll. Ex. 248
2 Williams, Ex. 644; 1 Chit. Pr. 580. See Sperate.
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
111 Moby Thesaurus words for "desperate":
Dionysiac, accident-prone, aching for, acute, affording no hope,
amok, apathetic, atrocious, bacchic, baffled, balked, berserk,
bleak, breakneck, careless, cheerless, climacteric, comfortless,
compelling, concentrated, corybantic, craving, critical, crucial,
crying, dangerous, desirous of, despairing, despondent, desponding,
devil-may-care, dire, disconsolate, dismal, exquisite, fierce,
foiled, foolhardy, forlorn, frantic, frenetic, frenzied,
frustrated, furious, grave, great, grim, hard pressed, hard up,
harum-scarum, hasty, hazardous, headlong, heinous, hopeless,
hotheaded, hurried, impetuous, in despair, in desperate straits,
in extremis, in extremities, like one possessed, mad, madding,
maenadic, maniac, maniacal, monstrous, overeager, overenthusiastic,
overzealous, panic-stricken, perilous, pinched, precarious,
precipitant, precipitate, precipitous, pressing, rabid, raging,
ranting, rash, raving, raving mad, reckless, running wild,
scandalous, serious, shocking, slap-bang, slapdash, sorely pressed,
stark-raving mad, straitened, tenuous, terrible, thwarted,
uncontrollable, unhopeful, up against it, urgent, vehement,
venturesome, vicious, violent, wanton, wild, without hope,
wretched
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