desperado
/,despə'rɑ:dou/
Definition
- Noun:
- A bold, dangerous, and often violent criminal or outlaw, especially one who acts with reckless disregard for the law or their own safety, typically because they are in a desperate situation. This term is strongly associated with the lawless American frontier of the 19th century.
Examples
- Noun:
- The town sheriff was determined to capture the desperado who had robbed the bank.
- In many Western films, the hero must face a ruthless desperado.
- He lived the life of a desperado, constantly on the run from the authorities.
Advanced Usage
- The term often carries a romanticized or dramatic connotation, implying a certain boldness or defiance, even in a criminal. It is less commonly used for modern criminals and more for historical or literary contexts.
- "To live like a desperado": To live a reckless, lawless, or dangerously independent life.
- After the war, he drifted from town to town, living like a desperado.
Variants and Related Words
- Desperate (adj): Feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with. This is the root adjective from which "desperado" is derived.
- He made a desperate attempt to escape.
- Desperation (n): A state of despair, typically one that results in rash or extreme behavior.
- In a moment of desperation, he agreed to their terms.
Synonyms
- Outlaw
- Bandit
- Fugitive
- Renegade
- Criminal
Related Idioms
- "Have a desperado's luck": To have surprisingly good fortune despite taking great risks, akin to the luck often attributed to famous outlaws in stories.
- He survived the crash against all odds; he has a desperado's luck.
Noun
-
a bold outlaw (especially on the American frontier)
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