Desperation
[despə'reɪʃn] or [,dɛspə'reʃən]
Definition
(noun.) desperate recklessness; 'it was a policy of desperation'.
Editor: Madge--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act of despairing or becoming desperate; a giving up of hope.
(n.) A state of despair, or utter hopeless; abandonment of hope; extreme recklessness; reckless fury.
Checked by John
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Despair, hopelessness.
Checked by Bonnie
Examples
- You will drive him to desperation, she said, and increase our dangers tenfold. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- But being soured, Mr Wegg, and driven to reckless madness and desperation, I suppose it's Yes. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Ma'am,' said Mr. Pickwick, thrusting out his head in the extremity of his desperation, 'ma'am! Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Now he dug with it in a steady, almost machinelike desperation. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- I was just saying to Eunice when you came in— My dear aunt, the joke is not worth telling you, said Maurice, in desperation cutting her short. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Blessed if I don't think that ven a man's wery poor, he rushes out of his lodgings, and eats oysters in reg'lar desperation. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Nerved by the courage of desperation, she opened the door. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- In stipulating for it, he had been impelled by a feeling little short of desperation, and the feeling abided by him. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I haven't got to keep it warm,' Mr Wegg made answer, in a sort of desperation occasioned by the singularity of the question. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- I felt, if not brave, yet a little desperate; and desperation will often suffice to fill the post and do the work of courage. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- This intention, with a promptitude often the effect of desperation, he at once commenced carrying into execution, with much vigour and surgical skill. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- What does this unmannerly boy mean,' asked Mr. Gradgrind, eyeing him in a sort of desperation, 'by Tight-Jeff? Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- Brummell here forced his way through the crowd in a fit of desperation and disappeared. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- But I resisted all these overtures, and sat there in desperation; each time asking him, with tears in my eyes, for my money or my jacket. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- It's worse than boots, it's a silk dress, she said, with the calmness of desperation, for she wanted the worst over. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
Typed by Evangeline