adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a desperate appeal
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The family made a desperate appeal to their daughter to come home.
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The London-based relief agency issued a desperate appeal for aid.
a desperate attempt (= that involves a lot of effort )
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Doctors made a desperate attempt to save his life.
a desperate effort (= one you make when you are in a very bad situation )
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The fox made a desperate effort to get away.
a desperate gamble
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The parents took a desperate gamble by throwing their baby out of the burning building.
a desperate need (= an extremely urgent need )
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There is a desperate need to build more housing.
a desperate/dire shortage (= very serious and worrying )
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There is a desperate shortage of fresh water in the disaster area.
a desperate/frantic search
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After the war, many people returned to rural areas in a desperate search for food.
Desperate Housewives
desperate plight
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the desperate plight of the flood victims
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
how
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Dave doesn't realise how desperate I am for sleep.
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All I could think was how brave the thief was, or how desperate .
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If he only knew how desperate she was to get away now that Peter had crystallised all her doubts.
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It shows how desperate these people are to get out of their country, to get to a better place.
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I can imagine how desperate she must be feeling.
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It just shows how desperate New Yorkers are to be ahead of the curve.
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Life is something worth fighting for, no matter how desperate or discouraging our present circumstances.
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What lengths would they go to do so? How desperate were they for work?
increasingly
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They threw bodies forward in an increasingly desperate pursuit of the equaliser, but Thompson's fierce angled drive settled the issue.
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Still, industry sources acknowledge that stars have greater leverage in such negotiations as the search for prime-time hits becomes increasingly desperate .
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Policies emerging from the Kremlin look increasingly desperate .
more
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Without papal assistance, crown finances would have been in even more desperate straits than in fact they were.
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Schooling often represents the only avenue of escape from a much more desperate situation.
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Campbell's lies got ever more desperate , particularly to Margaret.
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But by 1613 even more desperate measures were in contemplation.
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With every new step taken along that path, the enemies of peace grow more desperate .
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The Collector resorted to even more desperate remedies.
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The look in her eyes has grown gayer and more desperate .
most
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Although they are not completely spiny, they are nevertheless prickly enough to repel all but the most desperate of predators.
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So far, the most desperate of measures has not been taken, perhaps because would-be refugees have nowhere to run.
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But Castle Drachenfels still stands, shunned even by the most desperate and corrupt inhabitants of the Grey Mountains.
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The most desperate outcry against the war was from women throughout the world, and especially from Arab women.
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It hopes to mount 15 flights a day - carrying enough food to feed 500,000 of the most desperate famine victims.
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Why do the most straight forward of people cling to the most desperate of secrets?
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Luther, the leader of the youngest and most desperate guerrilla army in the world, accepts a chocolate biscuit.
rather
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I felt rather desperate for him.
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He looked into her rather desperate eyes and Maggie ran the tip of her tongue anxiously over her lips.
so
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People become so desperate to make contact with beasts and fowl that they resort to going on nature trails.
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Musicians were so desperate to hear Michelangeli that they borrowed violin cases and sneaked in through the stage door.
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The hospital's situation was so desperate that there was only one small bag of drugs to share between 300 sick children.
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But so desperate was she to see her prince that she plunged into the water and drowned.
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They'd found the lead they had been so desperate for.
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Simeon was so desperate to stand out that he would show up in all sorts of strange costumes.
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The customers didn't mind, they were so desperate for food, anything would of done.
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I was so desperate for my community....
■ NOUN
attempt
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In a desperate attempt to break the news gently to the Overs, Mr Cronje asked police not to visit their home.
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He made two desperate attempts to recoup by staging the kind of garish spectacle that had once lured customers to the Falls.
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Montag's speech is a desperate attempt to show her the reality of her life.
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It's just a desperate attempt to make Sandra seem interesting.
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Sadly, drugs used in a desperate attempt to save his life made most of his organs unusable.
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A last desperate attempt to escape into the murky waters.
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Joy made one last desperate attempt and produced the most horrendous squeak ever, like a hare caught by a harvest scythe.
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This isn't a desperate attempt at reliving past glory, it's a little more sincere than that.
battle
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She kept up the desperate battle until another ambulance reached them near Hexham, Northumberland.
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He saw that all the company had dismounted, and were fighting a desperate battle against the pack that surrounded them.
bid
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Or as a desperate bid to get Aviemore to come up with the money?
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Protestors had climbed lime trees in a desperate bid to stop them being destroyed.
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Then Vernage noticed Sergeant King staggering down the road in a desperate bid to flag down a car.
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Even though he could barely stand, John made one last desperate bid for survival.
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They meet again today in a desperate bid to sort out who gets what of next year's £244.5 billion spending cake.
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Singlewood, 17, ran into the courtyard of Durham Castle in a desperate bid to shake off his pursuer.
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Knox made a desperate bid to get in front at the last corner but Martin held his line and emerged the winner.
desire
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Were you acting from your inner Child's desperate desire for love?
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And underlying everything is the desperate desire of both Dole and President Clinton to carry California this fall.
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It was wicked not to, he knew that, but now he felt a desperate desire to leap and jump.
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You could remove a desperate desire to have a baby by other means.
effort
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Then, with a desperate effort threw himself bodily away.
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The independence wars are not freak events but desperate efforts at cultural survival.
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Fights erupted outside supermarkets as shoppers battled for parking spaces in desperate efforts to stock up with canned goods.
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In their distress, factories and workers engage in barter in a desperate effort to survive.
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Riven hung on to his mount's bridle grimly whilst it bucked and reared in a desperate effort to get away.
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A desperate effort was made to reach agreement.
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In a desperate effort to camouflage falling rents and values landlords have been offering inducements to tenants.
fight
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Theresa Stevens, 21, was beaten, repeatedly stabbed and strangled as she put up a desperate fight to save herself.
man
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Sawing that leg in half was the last act of a desperate man , and he wasn't that desperate.
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They were borne down by desperate men who wanted only to kill before they were killed.
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Its captain, a desperate man with a criminal past, might throw the children overboard.
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Perhaps someday the historians would call it the act of a desperate man .
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Somewhere in the impenetrable blackness was a desperate man , cold, hungry, hunted.
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The desperate men and surviving vehicles splashed across and raced after the masses that had crossed the bridge before it was obstructed.
measure
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But by 1613 even more desperate measures were in contemplation.
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Desperate times call for desperate measures .
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The first is that if she stayed it would look as if the Conservatives were resorting to desperate measures .
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James's increasing financial difficulties impelled him to desperate measures .
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There are other examples, however, of desperate times begetting desperate measures .
need
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With hundreds of thousands of people in desperate need of food and shelter, six more helicopters were sent from Pretoria.
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By June 1950 a series of desperate needs had come together.
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His fear of blood had been overcome tonight because of his desperate need not to be a killer of animals.
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He had a desperate need to control both people and events.
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And with winter approaching there's a desperate need for more clothing and shoes.
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The knocking was continuous now, as though some one were in desperate need .
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It's a shame because the chassis has potential but the entire project is in desperate need of finance.
people
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It is dangerous, full of desperate people .
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The brave and often desperate people who crowded the station came from all over the world hoping to find a better life.
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These desperate People parade in my sleep.
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Towns with names like Connacht, Munster, Rosedale and Hanratty that teem with cramped lives and desperate people .
search
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This is one response to a desperate search for space and spectacle which is increasingly being denied in the United Kingdom.
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In her desperate search for clues, Joan visited clairvoyants across the country.
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Thousands of pastoralists have brought their cattle to Nairobi in a desperate search for grazing.
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It was a desperate search for cuts and economies.
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Starving, the kits left the den in a desperate search for food.
shortage
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Surely London employers were suffering from a desperate shortage of school-leavers?
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Again the desperate shortage of materials and the home-made nature of the goods was evident.
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While toy sales here have hit a record high they face a desperate shortage of clean water.
situation
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In desperate situations of life or death people come up with unheard-of wisdom.
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If this is correct, it confirms Posidonius' awareness of the desperate situation of the slaves before the rebellion.
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Schooling often represents the only avenue of escape from a much more desperate situation .
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But desperate situations called for desperate lies.
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Even in their desperate situation , they spent their time reading books or magazines, and remained orderly.
struggle
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A snowy wasteland yields the third key, but only after a desperate struggle with its guardians, the Ice Soldiers.
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But we would not give it up without a desperate struggle .
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Then they become enmeshed in a desperate struggle about who is to be the baby.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Another two weeks without emergency aid and I'd think things could become quite desperate .
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Refugees on the border are living in appalling conditions with desperate shortages of food, medicine and water.
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The hospital is full of people in desperate need of medical attention.
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The situation is desperate -- there are just not enough beds in the hospital.
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The situation was desperate . The enemy were now only a mile away.
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There was a desperate shortage of doctors.
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TV stations broadcast an appeal from the teenager's desperate parents.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Had he not been she might have telephoned him instead of Nick, when she had been desperate for company.
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I was inspired by her optimism in the face of such desperate conditions.
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In desperate situations of life or death people come up with unheard-of wisdom.
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Musicians were so desperate to hear Michelangeli that they borrowed violin cases and sneaked in through the stage door.
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Punters get desperate when the firm they are dealing with is about to go bust.
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Pushing himself up, he staggered on, feeling angry and desperate inside.
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We have members of our association who are desperate and worried sick as to how they are going to survive.