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In an extreme degree; to the point of dying or causing death; desperately; as, mortally jealous. Adrian mortally envied poets, painters, and artificers, in works wherein he had a vein to excel. Bacon.

Accustomed to, or employed in, desperate enterprises; hence, reckless; hopeless. "A perdue captain." Beau. & Fl.

Hence, a desperate hazard or act; a state of being submerged or overwhelmed with difficulties. [R.] She was brought to that plunge, to conceal her husband's murder or accuse her son. Sir P. Sidney. And with thou not reach out a friendly arm, To raise me from amidst this plunge of sorrows Addison.

force; revolt; insurrection. No sooner is the standard of rebellion displayed than men of desperate principles resort to it. Ames.

ge; a first step. This boy is forest-born, And hath been tutored in the rudiments of many desperate studies. Shak. There he shall first lay down the rudiments Of his great warfare. Milton.

A boisterous, cruel, brutal fellow; a desperate fellow ready for murderous or cruel deeds; a cutthroat. Wilt thou on thy deathbed play the ruffian Shak.

The reputation of a man depends on the first steps he makes in the world. Pope. Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have passed away. Cowper. I have lately taken steps . . . to relieve the old gentleman's distresses. G. W. Cable.

s. For I am in a strait betwixt two. Phil. i. 23. Let no man, who owns a Providence, grow desperate under any calamity or strait whatsoever. South. Ulysses made use of the pretense of natural infirmity to conceal the straits he was in at that time in his thoughts. Broome.