• (British) IPA: /ˈdɛsp(ə)ɹət/

desperate

1. In dire need of something.

   I hadn't eaten in two days and was desperate for food.

2. Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
   • c. 1590–1591, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.

   I was so desperate at one point, I even went to see a loan shark.

3. Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
   • 1879, {w, “GOLDSMITH, Oliver”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] ‎, Volume X, Ninth edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 761 ↗, column 2:

     Thomas Babington Macaulay}

   a desperate effort

4. Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.

   a desperate disease;  desperate fortune

5. Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
   • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

     a desperate offendress against nature

   • 1876, {w, “BUNYAN, John”, in The Encyclopædia Britannica […] ‎, Volume IV, Ninth edition, Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, page 526 ↗, column 2:

     Thomas Babington Macaulay}

6. Extremely intense.

desperate (plural desperates)

1. A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, addict, etc.

• despair
• desperado

• French: désespéré
• German: verzweifelt
• Italian: disperato
• Portuguese: desesperado
• Russian: отча́янный
• Spanish: desesperado

• Portuguese: desesperado
• Russian: безрассу́дный