desperado

/,despə'rɑ:dou/

Thân thiện

A desperado rides his horse across the dusty plain.

Definition

1. 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.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a bold outlaw (especially on the American frontier)

Từ đồng nghĩa

• desperate criminal