-pərtlē, -p(ə)rə̇t-, -li adverb
1. : in a desperate manner:
a. : so as to leave little hope (as of recovery or escape) : dangerously
became desperately ill with pneumonia
the old fixation, the result of 14 years together, still desperately influences her mind and body — Leslie Rees
b. : with an intensified or all-out last-ditch effort in refusal to give up a struggle or purpose
desperately fighting asthma
figures struggling desperately among the countless corpses that floated in the heavy sea — H.E.Rieseberg
grasping desperately at any straw to stave off starvation
c. : to utter indifference to consequences or danger : with reckless abandon
the tough cruel but desperately brave Arab slavers — Rodney Gilbert
d. : with a degree of obligation or pressure of necessity not to be denied or delayed : urgently , indispensably , compellingly
I emphasize the religious element in our national inheritance because I believe it is the one which desperately needs to be reexamined and recovered — Ruth Suckow
desperately needed potash in the soil
also : with unyielding insistence
desperately ambitious to make up for lost time — Gerald Priestland
I wanted desperately to be popular
2.
a. : to such a degree or such a degree of intensity as to bring dismay or distress close to despair : appallingly , frightfully , shockingly
desperately poor, they lived mostly on fat pork and cornbread
all houses and cellars were desperately overcrowded — J.H.Plumb
b. : to a superlative degree : extremely , intensely
one must get desperately tired of a climate which knows no winter or summer — Vernon Bartlett
never was the need for the proper discharge of this task so desperately urgent — Publ's Mod. Lang. Association of American
consistently entertaining, and at times it is, in fact, desperately funny — C.J.Rolo
I'm desperately sorry, sir
c. : with undue complication of detail or protraction : tortuously
it darkens toward the end and winds up in a desperately contrived coincidence — Time