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Desperate vs Devastate - What's the difference?

desperate | devastate |

As an adjective desperate

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

As a verb devastate is

to ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.

desperate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Since his exile she hath despised me most, / Forsworn my company and rail'd at me, / That I am desperate of obtaining her.
  • * , chapter=16
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=“[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”}}
  • Without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious.
  • * Macaulay
  • desperate expedients
  • Beyond hope; causing despair; extremely perilous; irretrievable.
  • Extreme, in a bad sense; outrageous.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • a desperate offendress against nature
  • * Macaulay
  • the most desperate of reprobates
  • Extremely intense.
  • Derived terms

    * desperation

    Anagrams

    * ----

    devastate

    English

    Verb

    (devastat)
  • To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
  • To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
  • To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.