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Glite Dictionary
🙏 Needing badly ⚠️ Risky or bold
desperate

desperate

704 3.3
Wanting something very much and feeling hopeless
  • adjective
  • /ˈdɛspərɪt/
translation icon : desesperado
  • After losing her job, she was desperate to find new work before her savings ran out.
  • feel desperate
  • a desperate need
  • desperate for help

What do you think I'm desperate for their love.

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Examples

  • But it may be worth considering, if only because of the desperate condition of undergraduate education today.

    Academic text (1990)

  • At the core of this grand and complex experiment was a desperate longing for religious and civic freedom.

    Academic text (1993)

  • So hate is a desperate cry for love.

    Dr. Mayim Bialik

  • At that time, I was desperate for a change.

  • Hey, Drew, please help this desperate single mother.

  • I was desperate for you to grow up just so I could get a good night's sleep.

    All of Us Strangers (2023)

  • I have been in desperate need of some good ND filters.

  • Please Drew, I'm in desperate need of a hair refresh.

  • Vincent looked over his shoulder, desperate for some help, but all around him was confusion.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • It was a sick, desperate, terrified city.

    The Great War

Synonyms

dire
vsdesperate
141 6.9

Very serious, frightening, and needing action quickly

refers to feeling urgent need or hopelessness rather than an external situation
frantic
vsdesperate
93 3.9

Very worried and acting quickly in a wild, uncontrolled way

expresses strong need or hopelessness without wild uncontrolled behavior
despairing
vsdesperate
4 4.6

Feeling very hopeless and sad

emphasizes urgent need or action rather than only hopelessness
panic-stricken
vsdesperate
4 6.3

Suddenly very afraid and acting without thinking

focuses on urgent need or hopelessness rather than abrupt fear
do-or-die
vsdesperate
  • Informal
2 7.2

Willing to do anything to succeed when the situation is urgent

expresses urgent need or hopelessness rather than active risk taking

Antonyms

hopeful
189 1.8

Feeling positive and expecting a good result

Compounds

desperate measure
14 5.7

An extreme action you take when all other options fail

desperate straits
2 7.4

A situation of very great trouble and urgent need with no easy way out

desperate criminal
  • US
1 6.8

A bold dangerous outlaw who robs travelers and banks in the Wild West

How Desperate

hopeless
133 2.7
desperate
704 3.3
anxious
201 2.7
worried
∞ 1.0
concerned
∞ 2.2

Surface Forms

desperate positive
desperater comparative
desperatest superlative

Etymology

Desperate comes from the Latin desperare, made of de- 'without' and sperare 'to hope'. So, to be desperate is to feel 'without hope' or to have a very urgent need.