Definition

1. Noun:
   • A bold outlaw (especially on the American frontier): A person who commits crimes and operates outside the law, characterized by recklessness and a willingness to take extreme risks, often because they have little to lose. This term is historically associated with lawless figures in the American Old West.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The town sheriff was determined to capture the desperate criminal who had been robbing stagecoaches.
  • In many Western films, the hero finally confronts the desperate criminal in a dramatic showdown.

Advanced Usage

• The term often implies a specific historical or archetypal context, evoking the image of a dangerous individual from the 19th-century American frontier who lives outside societal norms.
• It can be used metaphorically in modern contexts to describe someone who acts with reckless, lawless abandon in their field, though this is less common.
  • In the corporate world, he was seen as a desperate criminal, flouting every regulation to make a profit.

Variants and Related Words

• Desperado (n): This is a direct synonym and variant, specifically meaning a desperate or reckless criminal, especially a bandit.
  • The gang was led by a notorious desperado.
• Outlaw (n): A person who has broken the law and is hiding or fleeing from legal authority.
• Bandit (n): A robber or outlaw belonging to a gang and typically operating in remote or lawless areas.

Synonyms

• Desperado: A reckless, desperate outlaw.
• Fugitive: A person who has escaped from captivity or is in hiding, especially from the law.
• Renegade: A person who deserts and betrays an organization, country, or set of principles.

Related Phrases

• On the lam: Fleeing from law enforcement.
  • The desperate criminal was on the lam for weeks before being caught.
• Wanted dead or alive: A historical phrase on wanted posters, indicating the extreme danger posed by the criminal.
  • A poster declared the desperate criminal was wanted dead or alive.

Related Idioms

• Beyond the pale: Behavior that is outside the bounds of acceptable morality or law, a state often associated with a desperate criminal.
  • His actions were beyond the pale; he was a desperate criminal with no regard for life.
• Have a price on one's head: To be wanted by authorities, with a reward offered for capture.
  • The desperate criminal knew he had a price on his head and trusted no one.

Noun

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