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desperation|dɛspəˈreɪʃən|
Also 4–6 disperacion.
[a. OF. desperation, -acion (Godef.), or ad. L. dēspērātiōn-em, n. of action and condition from dēspērāre to despair.]
1. The action of despairing or losing all hope (of anything); the condition of having utterly lost hope; despair, hopelessness. Now rare.
c1366Chaucer A.B.C. 20 A greevous accioun Of verrey riht and desperacioun. c1375XI Pains of Hell 226 in O.E. Misc. App. ii, Disperacion of godis mercy, Of al þe payns in hel hit is most. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋983 Whiche thynges destourben penaunce..drede, schame, hope, and wanhope, that is, desperacioun. 1490Caxton How to die 4 To thende that he drawe him into disperacion. 1548Hall Chron. 134 b, For feare of losyng honor, and desperacion of gain. 1551T. Wilson Logike (1580) 60 Unbeleef, Desperation, whereby a man falleth from God. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. 131 Horrour of deathe..and disperation of æternal blisse. 1664Power Exp. Philos. i. 190 A diffidence and desperation..of ever reaching to any eminent Invention. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 52 ⁋5 Sunk yet deeper in the dungeon of misery..and surrounded with darker desperation. 1846Trench Mirac. xxvi. (1862) 363 The gracious Lord..could..[not] cure him so long as there was on his part this desperation of healing.
2. spec. Despair leading to recklessness, or recklessness arising from despair; a desperate state of mind in which, on account of the hopelessness or extremely small chance of success, one is ready to do any violent or extravagant action, regardless of risks or consequences. (Cf. desperate a. 4, 5.)
1531Elyot Gov. iii. ix, In desperation can nat be fortitude, for that, beinge a morall vertue, is euer voluntarye. Desperation is a thinge as it were constrayned. 1581G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 131 She is then readie to follow, whatsoever wrath and desperation shall put in her head. 1602Shakes. Ham. i. iv. 75 The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain That looks so many fathoms to the sea And hears it roar beneath. 1703Rowe Fair Penit. iv. i. 1322 A Deed of Desparation. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 150 ⁋4 Strength which would be unprofitably wasted in wild efforts of desperation. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Hist. Wks. (Bohn) I. 10 Needy and hungry to desperation. 1847James J. Marston Hall xi, There was no use in driving him to desperation. |