- feeling or showing that you have little hope and are ready to do anything without worrying about danger to yourself or others
- The prisoners grew increasingly desperate.
- Stores are getting desperate after two years of poor sales.
- Somewhere out there was a desperate man, cold, hungry, hunted.
- I heard sounds of a desperate struggle in the next room.
Extra ExamplesTopics Feelingsb2- I was starting to get desperate.
- She felt utterly desperate.
- The sudden loss of his money had made him desperate.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- look
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- about
- [usually before noun] (of an action) giving little hope of success; tried when everything else has failed
- He made a desperate bid for freedom.
- She clung to the edge in a desperate attempt to save herself.
- His increasing financial difficulties forced him to take desperate measures.
- Doctors were fighting a desperate battle to save the little girl's life.
Extra ExamplesTopics Difficulty and failureb2- a desperate search for a way out
- Jake held up his hands in a desperate plea for calm.
- Kaleil's final, desperate efforts to save the business come to naught.
- [not usually before noun] needing or wanting something very much
- desperate for something He was so desperate for a job he would have done anything.
- (informal) I'm desperate for a coffee.
- to be desperate for money/help/cash/attention
- desperate to do something I was absolutely desperate to see her.
- She was desperate to escape small town life.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- look
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- about
- (of a situation) extremely serious or dangerous
- The children are in desperate need of love and attention.
- They face a desperate shortage of clean water.
- His financial situation was desperate.
- He had died in desperate poverty.
- American farmers are in desperate straits today.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs- be
- feel
- look
- …
- extremely
- fairly
- very
- …
- about
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘in despair’): from Latin desperatus ‘deprived of hope’, past participle of desperare, from de- ‘down from’ + sperare ‘to hope’.
Check pronunciation:
desperate