Desperation

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Desperation \Des`per*a"tion\, n. [L. desperatio: cf. OF.
     desperation.]
     1. The act of despairing or becoming desperate; a giving up
        of hope.
        [1913 Webster]
  


              This desperation of success chills all our industry.
                                                    --Hammond.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A state of despair, or utter hopeless; abandonment of
        hope; extreme recklessness; reckless fury.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              In the desperation of the moment, the officers even
              tried to cut their way through with their swords.
                                                    --W. Irving.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  desperation
       n 1: a state in which everything seems wrong and will turn out
            badly; "they were rescued from despair at the last
            minute" [syn: {despair}]
       2: desperate recklessness; "it was a policy of desperation"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  34 Moby Thesaurus words for "desperation":
     acedia, anguish, anxiety, anxiousness, apathy, cave of Trophonius,
     cave of despair, defeatism, dejection, depression, despair,
     desperateness, despondency, disconsolateness, discouragement,
     distress, foolhardiness, forlornness, gloom, heedlessness,
     hopelessness, impetuosity, imprudence, melancholy, misery, no exit,
     no way, no way out, pessimism, rashness, recklessness, sloth,
     sorrow, wretchedness