desperado

From obsolete Spanish desperado, past participle of desperar, archaic form of desesperar (“to despair”), from Latin disperare (“to despair, to lose hope”), from prefix dis- + sperare (“to hope”). Doublet of desperate.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɛspəˈɹɑːdəʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

desperado (plural desperadoes or desperados)

1. A bold outlaw, especially one from southern portions of the Wild West.
   • 1850, Thomas Carlyle, “The present time”, in Latter-Day Pamphlets:

     The kind of persons who excite or give signal to such revolutions — students, young men of letters […], or fierce and justly bankrupt desperadoes, acting everywhere on the discontent of the millions and blowing it into flame, — might give rise to reflections as to the character of our epoch.

   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia, paperback edition, Mirado Modern Classics, page 6:

     Surely this was the face of a desperado.

2. (colloquial) A person in desperate circumstances or who is at the point of desperation, such as a down-and-outer, an addict, etc.
   • 1981, Sam Grafstein, Dice Doctor:

     The shortstops and desperados were not permitted to play in this marker crap game.

3. (colloquial) A person who is desperately in love or is desperate for a romantic or sexual relationship.
4. (chess) A piece that seems determined to give itself up, typically to bring about stalemate or perpetual check.

• dead-ropes

Cebuanized form of English desperate, from Latin dēspērātus, past participle of dēspērō (“to be without hope”). Spanish desperado is a false friend.

• Hyphenation: des‧pe‧ra‧do
• IPA^(key): /despeˈɾado/ [d̪es̪.peˈɾ̪a.d̪o]

desperado (feminine desperada)

1. in dire need of something
2. being filled with, or in a state of despair; hopeless
3. without regard to danger or safety; reckless; furious

desperado (feminine desperada)

1. to be in dire need of something
2. to be reckless due to desperation

desperado (feminine desperada)

1. a desperate male person

From Spanish desperado (“desperate person”), past participle of desperar, archaic form of desesperar (“to despair”).

desperado c (singular definite desperadoen, plural indefinite desperados or desperadoer)

1. desperado (outlaw)

• desperat

• “desperado” in Den Danske Ordbog

Borrowed from Spanish desperado

• IPA^(key): /ˈdesperɑ(ː)do/, [ˈde̞s̠pe̞ˌrɑ̝(ː)do̞]
• Rhymes: -ɑdo
• Syllabification^(key): des‧pe‧ra‧do
• Hyphenation^(key): des‧pe‧ra‧do

desperado

1. (chiefly in literature) desperado (SW US or Mexican outlaw)

Borrowed from English desperado.

• IPA^(key): /dɛs.pe.ʁa.do/

desperado m (plural desperados)

1. desperado

• “desperado”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): /despeˈɾado/ [d̪es.peˈɾa.ð̞o]
• Rhymes: -ado
• Syllabification: des‧pe‧ra‧do

desperado (feminine desperada, masculine plural desperados, feminine plural desperadas)

1. obsolete form of desesperado

desperado (feminine desperada, masculine plural desperados, feminine plural desperadas)

1. past participle of desperar

• “desperado”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024

Probably a pseudo-Hispanism, from English desperate, and influenced by Spanish desesperado.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /despeˈɾado/ [d̪ɛs.pɛˈɾaː.d̪o]
• Rhymes: -ado
• Syllabification: des‧pe‧ra‧do

desperado (feminine desperada, Baybayin spelling ᜇᜒᜐ᜔ᜉᜒᜇᜇᜓ)

1. (common) alternative form of des-esperado: desperate; hopeless