# desperate

Pronunciation: US say "DES-puh-rit" /ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹət/; UK

## Adjective

1. Having an urgent, overwhelming need or longing for something.
   - Simple: Needing or wanting something so badly that nothing else matters.
   - _Refugees arriving at the border were desperate for food and shelter._
   - _The startup was desperate for investment to survive the year._
2. Involving extreme, risky action undertaken without regard for danger because hope has nearly run out.
   - Simple: Done in a wild, risky way because there seems to be no other choice.
   - _The soldiers launched a desperate charge against the fortified position._
   - _She took a desperate gamble, betting everything on one final deal._
3. Offering little reason for hope; extremely perilous or close to ruin.
   - Simple: So bad or dangerous that there is almost no hope left.
   - _The economy reached a desperate state after months of decline._
   - _Trapped miners faced a desperate few hours as their oxygen dwindled._
4. Filled with despair; feeling that there is no hope left.
   - Simple: Feeling that nothing good can happen and all hope is gone.
   - _Desperate and exhausted, the survivors waited for a rescue that might never come._
   - _He sounded desperate on the phone, as if he had given up entirely._
5. Very great in degree; extremely intense or powerful.
   - Simple: Very strong, deep, or intense.
   - _A desperate cold gripped the mountains through the long winter._
   - _The room fell into a desperate quiet as the verdict was read._
6. Extremely bad; shocking or intolerable in quality.
   - Simple: So bad that it shocks people and cannot be accepted.
   - _The state of the old hotel was desperate, with peeling walls and broken windows._
   - _He made a desperate mess of the simple repair job._

## Noun

7. Someone in dire circumstances or at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-out person or an addict.
   - Simple: A person who is in a very bad situation and has almost no hope left.
   - _The mission fed every desperate who showed up at its door._
   - _By midnight the alley was crowded with desperates looking for a place to sleep._

## Adverb

8. Very; extremely, used before an adjective to intensify it. *(dialectal, US)*
   - Simple: Used before a describing word to mean very or extremely.
   - _The well ran desperate low during the drought that summer._
   - _He came home desperate hungry after working the fields all day._

## Origin

From Middle English desperat(e), borrowed from Latin dēspērātus, the past participle of dēspērō ("to be without hope"). The noun comes from the adjective or directly from the Latin source.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/desperate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).