How to Use desperado in a Sentence

desperado

noun
  • And the male rider looked the part of a desperado with his white hat & bandana, brown leather chaps, and white duster adorned with blue Cowboys stars.
    Kristi Scales, Dallas News, 9 Dec. 2020
  • There's going to be 15 desperados over those two nights.
    NBC News, 28 July 2019
  • The desperadoes are so evil that Dutch (Borgnine) makes a joke of it when someone suggests pausing to give a decent burial to a fallen comrade.
    Kyle Smith, National Review, 20 June 2019
  • Buy a California fishing license at Convict Lake, named for a gang of desperadoes who broke out of a Nevada jail in 1871 and met their end in a shootout with lawmen here.
    Katherine Rodeghier, Dallas News, 16 July 2019
  • The desperado appears as a wizened, gun-toting shadow slung across railroad tracks and in the scared whispers of shopkeepers and children.
    Marisha Pessl, New York Times, 6 June 2018
  • For Jessilyn —who now goes by Jesse—the disguise accesses the whiskey-drinking, quick-drawing desperado inside her.
    Sam Sacks, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2018
  • Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo No one faced more pressure to thrive, aside from those desperados on the roster bubble.
    Cam Inman, The Mercury News, 25 Aug. 2019
  • Dillinger's family identified the body, but the desperado had recently undergone plastic surgery and dyed his hair black in an attempt to hide his identity.
    Neal Taflinger, Indianapolis Star, 31 Aug. 2017
  • At least a half-dozen agents were involved in the case, which used stakeouts, confidential informants, search warrants and wiretaps to gather evidence against these desperados.
    Joseph Gerth, The Courier-Journal, 23 June 2017
  • So many of its characters remain recognizable—blustering desperadoes, who believe in their right to act outside the law and then impose rules and strictures on others.
    Rachel Syme, The New Republic, 6 June 2019
  • Though legally off-limits to commercial exploitation, the lands are under near-constant siege by loggers and other desperados.
    National Geographic, 21 Jan. 2016
  • The film saddles up alongside Nat Love (Jonathan Majors), a desperado looking for vengeance after a traumatic childhood incident.
    Anika Reed, USA TODAY, 4 Nov. 2021
  • Instead, an orderly development of the interior—less violent, and less inclined to celebrate the desperado over the peaceful peasant.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 15 May 2017
  • At first glance, Ross McDonnell’s ambrotypes resemble 19th century portraits of desperados.
    Pete Brook, WIRED, 23 May 2014

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desperado.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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