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Dire vs Desperate - What's the difference?

dire | desperate | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between dire and desperate

is that dire is warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous while desperate is being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless.

dire

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
  • (label) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Arindam Rej, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Norwich 4-2 Newcastle , passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.}}

    Derived terms

    * direful * direly * direness * dire sisters * dire straits * dire wolf

    See also

    * voir dire

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    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

    * ----