[ˈdɛsp(ə)rət], (Adjective)

Definitions:
- feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with
(e.g: a desperate sadness enveloped Ruth)

- (of a person) having a great need or desire for something
(e.g: I am desperate for a cigarette)


Phrases:
- desperate diseases must have desperate remedies

Origin:
late Middle English (in the sense ‘in despair’): from Latin desperatus ‘deprived of hope’, past participle of desperare (see despair)