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What is "desperate"

Crossword clues for desperate

desperate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
desperate
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a desperate appeal
▪ The family made a desperate appeal to their daughter to come home.
▪ The London-based relief agency issued a desperate appeal for aid.
a desperate attempt (=that involves a lot of effort)
▪ Doctors made a desperate attempt to save his life.
a desperate effort (=one you make when you are in a very bad situation)
▪ The fox made a desperate effort to get away.
a desperate gamble
▪ The parents took a desperate gamble by throwing their baby out of the burning building.
a desperate need (=an extremely urgent need)
▪ There is a desperate need to build more housing.
a desperate/dire shortage (=very serious and worrying)
▪ There is a desperate shortage of fresh water in the disaster area.
a desperate/frantic search
▪ After the war, many people returned to rural areas in a desperate search for food.
Desperate Housewives
desperate plight
▪ the desperate plight of the flood victims
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
how
▪ Dave doesn't realise how desperate I am for sleep.
▪ All I could think was how brave the thief was, or how desperate.
▪ If he only knew how desperate she was to get away now that Peter had crystallised all her doubts.
▪ It shows how desperate these people are to get out of their country, to get to a better place.
▪ I can imagine how desperate she must be feeling.
▪ It just shows how desperate New Yorkers are to be ahead of the curve.
▪ Life is something worth fighting for, no matter how desperate or discouraging our present circumstances.
▪ What lengths would they go to do so? How desperate were they for work?
increasingly
▪ They threw bodies forward in an increasingly desperate pursuit of the equaliser, but Thompson's fierce angled drive settled the issue.
▪ Still, industry sources acknowledge that stars have greater leverage in such negotiations as the search for prime-time hits becomes increasingly desperate.
▪ Policies emerging from the Kremlin look increasingly desperate.
more
▪ Without papal assistance, crown finances would have been in even more desperate straits than in fact they were.
▪ Schooling often represents the only avenue of escape from a much more desperate situation.
▪ Campbell's lies got ever more desperate, particularly to Margaret.
▪ But by 1613 even more desperate measures were in contemplation.
▪ With every new step taken along that path, the enemies of peace grow more desperate.
▪ The Collector resorted to even more desperate remedies.
▪ The look in her eyes has grown gayer and more desperate.
most
▪ Although they are not completely spiny, they are nevertheless prickly enough to repel all but the most desperate of predators.
▪ So far, the most desperate of measures has not been taken, perhaps because would-be refugees have nowhere to run.
▪ But Castle Drachenfels still stands, shunned even by the most desperate and corrupt inhabitants of the Grey Mountains.
▪ The most desperate outcry against the war was from women throughout the world, and especially from Arab women.
▪ It hopes to mount 15 flights a day - carrying enough food to feed 500,000 of the most desperate famine victims.
▪ Why do the most straight forward of people cling to the most desperate of secrets?
▪ Luther, the leader of the youngest and most desperate guerrilla army in the world, accepts a chocolate biscuit.
rather
▪ I felt rather desperate for him.
▪ He looked into her rather desperate eyes and Maggie ran the tip of her tongue anxiously over her lips.
so
▪ People become so desperate to make contact with beasts and fowl that they resort to going on nature trails.
▪ Musicians were so desperate to hear Michelangeli that they borrowed violin cases and sneaked in through the stage door.
▪ The hospital's situation was so desperate that there was only one small bag of drugs to share between 300 sick children.
▪ But so desperate was she to see her prince that she plunged into the water and drowned.
▪ They'd found the lead they had been so desperate for.
▪ Simeon was so desperate to stand out that he would show up in all sorts of strange costumes.
▪ The customers didn't mind, they were so desperate for food, anything would of done.
▪ I was so desperate for my community....
■ NOUN
attempt
▪ In a desperate attempt to break the news gently to the Overs, Mr Cronje asked police not to visit their home.
▪ He made two desperate attempts to recoup by staging the kind of garish spectacle that had once lured customers to the Falls.
▪ Montag's speech is a desperate attempt to show her the reality of her life.
▪ It's just a desperate attempt to make Sandra seem interesting.
▪ Sadly, drugs used in a desperate attempt to save his life made most of his organs unusable.
▪ A last desperate attempt to escape into the murky waters.
▪ Joy made one last desperate attempt and produced the most horrendous squeak ever, like a hare caught by a harvest scythe.
▪ This isn't a desperate attempt at reliving past glory, it's a little more sincere than that.
battle
▪ She kept up the desperate battle until another ambulance reached them near Hexham, Northumberland.
▪ He saw that all the company had dismounted, and were fighting a desperate battle against the pack that surrounded them.
bid
▪ Or as a desperate bid to get Aviemore to come up with the money?
▪ Protestors had climbed lime trees in a desperate bid to stop them being destroyed.
▪ Then Vernage noticed Sergeant King staggering down the road in a desperate bid to flag down a car.
▪ Even though he could barely stand, John made one last desperate bid for survival.
▪ They meet again today in a desperate bid to sort out who gets what of next year's £244.5 billion spending cake.
▪ Singlewood, 17, ran into the courtyard of Durham Castle in a desperate bid to shake off his pursuer.
▪ Knox made a desperate bid to get in front at the last corner but Martin held his line and emerged the winner.
desire
▪ Were you acting from your inner Child's desperate desire for love?
▪ And underlying everything is the desperate desire of both Dole and President Clinton to carry California this fall.
▪ It was wicked not to, he knew that, but now he felt a desperate desire to leap and jump.
▪ You could remove a desperate desire to have a baby by other means.
effort
▪ Then, with a desperate effort threw himself bodily away.
▪ The independence wars are not freak events but desperate efforts at cultural survival.
▪ Fights erupted outside supermarkets as shoppers battled for parking spaces in desperate efforts to stock up with canned goods.
▪ In their distress, factories and workers engage in barter in a desperate effort to survive.
▪ Riven hung on to his mount's bridle grimly whilst it bucked and reared in a desperate effort to get away.
▪ A desperate effort was made to reach agreement.
▪ In a desperate effort to camouflage falling rents and values landlords have been offering inducements to tenants.
fight
▪ Theresa Stevens, 21, was beaten, repeatedly stabbed and strangled as she put up a desperate fight to save herself.
man
▪ Sawing that leg in half was the last act of a desperate man, and he wasn't that desperate.
▪ They were borne down by desperate men who wanted only to kill before they were killed.
▪ Its captain, a desperate man with a criminal past, might throw the children overboard.
▪ Perhaps someday the historians would call it the act of a desperate man.
▪ Somewhere in the impenetrable blackness was a desperate man, cold, hungry, hunted.
▪ The desperate men and surviving vehicles splashed across and raced after the masses that had crossed the bridge before it was obstructed.
measure
▪ But by 1613 even more desperate measures were in contemplation.
▪ Desperate times call for desperate measures.
▪ The first is that if she stayed it would look as if the Conservatives were resorting to desperate measures.
▪ James's increasing financial difficulties impelled him to desperate measures.
▪ There are other examples, however, of desperate times begetting desperate measures.
need
▪ With hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of food and shelter, six more helicopters were sent from Pretoria.
▪ By June 1950 a series of desperate needs had come together.
▪ His fear of blood had been overcome tonight because of his desperate need not to be a killer of animals.
▪ He had a desperate need to control both people and events.
▪ And with winter approaching there's a desperate need for more clothing and shoes.
▪ The knocking was continuous now, as though some one were in desperate need.
▪ It's a shame because the chassis has potential but the entire project is in desperate need of finance.
people
▪ It is dangerous, full of desperate people.
▪ The brave and often desperate people who crowded the station came from all over the world hoping to find a better life.
▪ These desperate People parade in my sleep.
▪ Towns with names like Connacht, Munster, Rosedale and Hanratty that teem with cramped lives and desperate people.
search
▪ This is one response to a desperate search for space and spectacle which is increasingly being denied in the United Kingdom.
▪ In her desperate search for clues, Joan visited clairvoyants across the country.
▪ Thousands of pastoralists have brought their cattle to Nairobi in a desperate search for grazing.
▪ It was a desperate search for cuts and economies.
▪ Starving, the kits left the den in a desperate search for food.
shortage
▪ Surely London employers were suffering from a desperate shortage of school-leavers?
▪ Again the desperate shortage of materials and the home-made nature of the goods was evident.
▪ While toy sales here have hit a record high they face a desperate shortage of clean water.
situation
▪ In desperate situations of life or death people come up with unheard-of wisdom.
▪ If this is correct, it confirms Posidonius' awareness of the desperate situation of the slaves before the rebellion.
▪ Schooling often represents the only avenue of escape from a much more desperate situation.
▪ But desperate situations called for desperate lies.
▪ Even in their desperate situation, they spent their time reading books or magazines, and remained orderly.
struggle
▪ A snowy wasteland yields the third key, but only after a desperate struggle with its guardians, the Ice Soldiers.
▪ But we would not give it up without a desperate struggle.
▪ Then they become enmeshed in a desperate struggle about who is to be the baby.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Another two weeks without emergency aid and I'd think things could become quite desperate.
▪ Refugees on the border are living in appalling conditions with desperate shortages of food, medicine and water.
▪ The hospital is full of people in desperate need of medical attention.
▪ The situation is desperate -- there are just not enough beds in the hospital.
▪ The situation was desperate. The enemy were now only a mile away.
▪ There was a desperate shortage of doctors.
▪ TV stations broadcast an appeal from the teenager's desperate parents.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Had he not been she might have telephoned him instead of Nick, when she had been desperate for company.
▪ I was inspired by her optimism in the face of such desperate conditions.
▪ In desperate situations of life or death people come up with unheard-of wisdom.
▪ Musicians were so desperate to hear Michelangeli that they borrowed violin cases and sneaked in through the stage door.
▪ Punters get desperate when the firm they are dealing with is about to go bust.
▪ Pushing himself up, he staggered on, feeling angry and desperate inside.
▪ We have members of our association who are desperate and worried sick as to how they are going to survive.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Desperate

Desperate \Des"per*ate\, a. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]

  1. Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [Obs.]

    I am desperate of obtaining her.
    --Shak.

  2. Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable; past cure, or, at least, extremely dangerous; as, a desperate disease; desperate fortune.

  3. Proceeding from, or suggested by, despair; without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious; as, a desperate effort. ``Desperate expedients.''
    --Macaulay.

  4. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous; -- used to mark the extreme predominance of a bad quality.

    A desperate offendress against nature.
    --Shak.

    The most desperate of reprobates.
    --Macaulay.

    Syn: Hopeless; despairing; desponding; rash; headlong; precipitate; irretrievable; irrecoverable; forlorn; mad; furious; frantic.

Desperate

Desperate \Des"per*ate\, n. One desperate or hopeless. [Obs.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
desperate

early 15c., "despairing, hopeless," from Latin desperatus "given up, despaired of," past participle of desperare (see despair (v.)). Sense of "driven to recklessness" is from late 15c.; weakened sense of "having a great desire for" is from 1950s. Related: Desperately.

Wiktionary
desperate

a. Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.

Related phrases:
WordNet
desperate

  1. adj. 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]

  2. desperately determined; "do-or-die revolutionaries"; "a do-or-die conflict" [syn: 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: 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: dire]

desperate

n. a person who is frightened and in need of help; "they prey on the hopes of the desperate"

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Desperate (film)

Desperate is a 1947 suspense film noir directed by Anthony Mann and featuring Steve Brodie, Audrey Long, Raymond Burr, Douglas Fowley, William Challee and Jason Robards.

Desperate

Desperate may refer to:

  • Despair (emotion), a feeling of hopelessness
  • Desperate (film), a 1947 suspense film directed by Anthony Mann
  • Desperate (Divinyls album), a 1983 album by Australian rock group Divinyls
  • Desperate (Daphne Khoo album), the 2007 debut album of Daphne Khoo
    • "Desperate" (Daphne Khoo song), the title track of the above album
  • "Desperate", a 2009 song by David Archuleta from David Archuleta (album)
  • "Desperate", a 2010 song by Fireflight from For Those Who Wait
  • "Desperate", a 2001 song by Suburban Legends from Suburban Legends
  • "The Desperate", a 2016 song by Owen from The King of Whys
Desperate (Divinyls album)

Desperate is the debut studio album and second overall album by Australian rock band Divinyls, released in 1983 by Chrysalis Records. The album contains the hits " Boys in Town", " Science Fiction" and " Siren (Never Let You Go)".

Desperate (Daphne Khoo album)

Desperate is the official debut studio album of Daphne Khoo. It was released in December, 2007. It contains the singles "Doll" and "Desperate". It is well received in Southeast Asia, Singapore.

Usage examples of "desperate".

About the year 1418 the Acolhuans were attacked by a kindred race, the Tepanecs, who, after a desperate struggle, captured their city, killed their monarch, and subjugated their kingdom.

Now, in the eleventh hour of the election, Hamilton lashed out in a desperate effort to destroy Adams, the leading candidate of his own party.

But Ade Bennett had it, and he was human, and one day he might be homesick or desperate enough to find a way of getting back to Earth.

In the entire twelve-year history of FBI mistakes leading up to September 11, the fact that FBI headquarters ignored that desperate eleventh-hour plea from its own field agents is perhaps the greatest indictment of the house that Hoover built.

Perhaps, with Mary Fowler, after she had lost everything else, her whole life came to centre on Alberta, so that Alberta was everything and she felt toward her all that desperate protectiveness that a mother may feel toward a child.

The first character Alice meets is the harried White Rabbit, a desperate slave to his watch and busy schedule.

And Furvain, glancing for just a moment into his wine-bowl as though some poem might be lurking there, would draw a deep breath and instantaneously begin to recite a mock epic, in neatly balanced hexameter and the most elaborate of anapestic rhythms, about the desperate craving of a Pontifex for sausage made of steetmoy meat, and the sending of the laziest and most cowardly of the royal courtiers on a hunting expedition to the snowbound lair of that ferocious white-furred creature of northern Zimroel.

Navy was able to relieve the Army Air Force of antisubmarine duties which it had assumed at a time of desperate need.

On the return of spring, nothing appeared in arms except a hardy and desperate band, the remnant of that mighty host which had embarked at the mouth of the Niester.

I was desperate for company, even that of a Buddhist arhat with black gums.

Chapter V Renewal of the feud between the Bishop and Don Gregorio -- Wholesale excommunications in Asuncion -- Cardenas in 1644 formulates his celebrated charges against the Jesuits -- The Governor, after long negotiations and much display of force, ultimately succeeds in driving out the Bishop -- For three years Cardenas is in desperate straits -- In 1648 Don Gregorio is suddenly dismissed, Cardenas elects himself Governor, and for a short time becomes supreme in Asuncion -- The Jesuits are forced to leave the town and to flee to Corrientes -- A new Governor is appointed in Asuncion -- He defeats Cardenas on the field of battle -- The latter is deprived of his power, and dies soon after as Bishop of La Paz The Governor, like a prudent soldier, was biding his time.

Robert realised that the situation was desperate and decided that the Queen should return to Kildrummy Castle with Neil Bruce and the Earl of Atholl, and then try to get to Norway.

They keep further north for Auckland, further south for New Plymouth, and the ship had struck just between these two points, on the desert region of the shores of Ika-na-Mani, a dangerous, difficult coast, and infested by desperate characters.

Or against the Azerbaijani Muslims who looked on him with glee for the virtually free slave labor he and other desperate infidels offered them.

Reports were saying Balthazar was getting desperate to complete his plans.