desperater
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Senses: examples: text: “But I never thought I’d be arrested on such a charge as that.” / “Somethin’ a little desperater than that, hey?” Berdan interrogated with unexpected quickness.
ref: 1910, J[ohn] R[ichard] Stafford, chapter VI, in When Cattle Kingdom Fell, New York, N.Y.: B. W. Dodge & Company, →OCLC, page 89:
text: ‘Madam,’ I says pretty severe, ‘don’t trifle with me. I’m a desperate man, and my friend here is even desperater than what I am. Remember you are alone, and at our mercy and—’
ref: 1915 January, Irvin S[hrewsbury] Cobb, “The Valley of Plenty”, in The Red Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: The Red Book Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 444, column 1:
text: You see, it’s a mighty responsible position I’ve got—the United States government pays me 12 1-2 cents for every trip I make with this bunch of mail, and I guess they know I’m not the kind of person to be trifled with. There’s desperate characters about sometimes, but I’m desperater than any of them, especially when I’m a leetle scared.
ref: 1917 August 16, Paul E[llsworth] Triem, “Under the Black Canopy”, in The Washington Farmer, volume XL, number 33, Spokane, Wash., →ISSN, →OCLC, chapter II (The Wrestling Match), page 18, column 2:
text: Now desperate Joe Engel, who sometimes can get desperater than anybody, is interested in Jesse Levan, who butchered first base in the name of the Crackers last spring.
ref: 1953 December 12, Furman Bisher, “New, New, New—Scoring and Conferences”, in The Atlanta Constitution, volume LXXXVI, number 153, Atlanta, Ga., →OCLC, page 5, column 1:
text: He was moody and that moodiness carried over into his music, and even though we all knew that fame was a whore, Harry thought she was a lover, that was his style, elegance in poverty, man, he was desperater than Lady, too bad he didn’t have the talent.
ref: 1988, Michael Doane, “Lela Maar Sings Harry Lord: ‘A Long Fall into Shallow Waters’ (3:48), 1934”, in The Surprise of Burning, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 41:
text: Then I stopped. Just stopped. This feeling came over me, like a thrown bucket of water. I wasn’t tired, I wasn’t any desperater than I’d been the minute before. I just stopped.
ref: 2005, J[oseph] G[eorge] Hayes, “Terry-Love: One Good Thing”, in Now Batting for Boston: More Stories by J. G. Hayes (Gay Men’s Fiction), Binghamton, N.Y.: Southern Tier Editions, Harrington Park Press, →ISBN, page 151:
text: The party starts in four minutes and you’re desperater than desperate. Simply stick a bunch of sticky notes on your clothes and go as the half-man/half-presentation known as Sticky Note Man.
ref: 2006, Jimmy Knight, Tom Chalmers, “Hasty Halloween Costumes”, in Extreme Office Crafts: Creative & Devious Ways to Waste Supplies & Company Time, New York, N.Y.: Lark Books, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., →ISBN, “Spreading the Joy” section, page 103, column 1:
text: Finally, they got desperater than they could stand and they fought back and, when it was over, hundreds of Santee Sioux was taken prisoner and put straight on trial by the army without no lawyers nor jury, not even no one to translate for them so they could know what everyone was yattering about. […] If them two turned up here at the same time, I was in even more desperater trouble, if that was possible.
ref: 2017 January 10, Robert Coover, Huck Out West, New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, pages 24 (chapter III) and 243 (chapter XXX):
glosses: comparative form of desperate: more desperate