desperate.
In dire need (of something); having a dire need or desire.
Meaning & usage
In dire need (of something); having a dire need or desire.
I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.
desperate to eat; desperate for attention
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.
Beyond hope, leaving little reason for hope; causing despair; extremely perilous.
a desperate disease; desperate fortune
Involving or employing extreme measures, without regard to danger or safety; reckless due to hopelessness.
He dove into the rushing waters in a desperate effort to save her life.
Extremely bad; outrageous, shocking; intolerable.
Intense; extremely intense.
Where this word comes from
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).
Desperately.
Where this word comes from
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).
A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, addict, etc.
Where this word comes from
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).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.