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.

Adjective

(-)

Not desperate.

*{{quote-news, year=2008, date=May 4, author=Helen Schulman, title=Cheating Hearts, work=New York Times citation

, passage=For Jean, who has found working from the island ? with its “miniature rain forest and ... the jammed markets, the friendly, nondesperate people, the bright and thrillingly imperiled birdlife” ? something of a “prolonged junket with sunshine and copy,” and who still thinks that a bit of jam stuck to the corner of her longtime husband’s mouth at breakfast is somehow endearing, the prospect of blowing up the marriage is fairly daunting. }}