What does "desperate" mean?
Desperate: Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable; past cure, or, at least, extremely dangerous; as, a desperate disease; desperate fortune.
Additional senses
- 2.Proceeding from, or suggested by, despair; without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious; as, a desperate effort. "Desperate expedients." Macaulay.
- 3.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.
- 4.One desperate or hopeless. [Obs.]
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00