desperate

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
desperate/ˈdespərət/

▶adjective

• 1 feeling, showing, or involving despair.

  ■ tried in despair or when everything else has failed.

• 2 extremely bad or serious: a desperate shortage.

• 3 (often desperate for/to do) having a great need or desire for something.

• 4 violent or dangerous: a desperate criminal.

– derivatives
desperately adverb,
desperateness noun.

– origin ME: from L. desperatus ‘deprived of hope’, past part. of desperare (see despair).