desperate

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

desperate (comparative more desperate, superlative most desperate)

1. In dire need of something.

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

2. Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
   • William Shakespeare

     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.

3. Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
   • Macaulay

     desperate expedients

   a desperate effort

4. Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.

   a desperate disease;  desperate fortune

5. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
   • William Shakespeare

     a desperate offendress against nature

   • Macaulay

     the most desperate of reprobates

6. Extremely intense.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• desperation

Related terms

• despair
• desperado

Translations

filled with despair

• Armenian: հուսահատ (hy) (husahat)
• Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: отчаян (bg) (otčajan)
• 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)
• German: verzweifelt (de)
• Greek: απελπισμένος (el) (apelpisménos)

• Hebrew: מיואש‎‎ (miuash)
• Italian: disperato (it)
• Khmer: ជាខ្លាំង (cie klang)
• Macedonian: очаен m (óčaen)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: desperat

  Nynorsk: desperat

• Polish: zdesperowany (pl) m
• Portuguese: desesperado (pt)
• Russian: отча́янный (ru) (otčájannyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: očajan (sh)
• Spanish: desesperado (es) m

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

• Arabic: ^{(please verify)} يَائِس‎‎ (yāʾis), ^{(please verify)} قَانِط‎‎ (qāniṭ)
• Icelandic: ^{(please verify)} Örvæntingafullur
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 絶望的 (ぜつぼうてき, zetsubōteki)

• Macedonian: ^{(please verify)} очаен m (óčaen), ^{(please verify)} очајнички m (očájnički)
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} очајан, ^{(please verify)} očajan (sh), ^{(please verify)} očajnički (sh)
• Vietnamese: ^{(please verify)} tuyệt vọng (vi)

Anagrams

• departees

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Danish

Adjective

desperate

1. plural and definite singular attributive of desperat

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Latin

Verb

dēspērāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēspērō

References

• desperate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• desperate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

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Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

desperate

1. definite singular of desperat
2. plural form of desperat

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Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

desperate

1. definite singular of desperat
2. plural form of desperat