How to Use desperado in a Sentence

desperado

noun
  • Most are not desperados on the run.
    — William Morris, Des Moines Register, 4 Mar. 2026
  • These are desperadoes in the White House.
    — Anne Thompson, IndieWire, 26 Nov. 2025
  • 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
  • Actually, the two would-be desperadoes might have fared better going up against the late, great action star.
    — Joe Leydon, Variety, 3 Aug. 2023
  • Today, Moscow is glamorous but sealed off and duller than the 1990s desperado days.
    — Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
  • 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 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
  • 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
  • For Jessilyn —who now goes by Jesse—the disguise accesses the whiskey-drinking, quick-drawing desperado inside her.
    — Sam Sacks, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2018
  • 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
  • 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
  • Liu returned to skating in late 2024 after two and a half years, with the clearheaded intention to be a performance artist, not a medal-seeking desperado.
    — Sally Jenkins, The Atlantic, 22 Feb. 2026
  • 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
  • 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
  • The lore of Arizona includes everything from Native stories to supernatural occurrences to tales of desperados.
    — Thomas France, The Arizona Republic, 3 Apr. 2023
  • Producing Return Next Fall Runner-up in this vicious world of shifty desperados is just a tiny step up from loser, the ultimate emasculating death sentence.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 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
  • 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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