What's the verb of "desperate", I think it's not "despair", because in this case when you are desperate, you are willing to do anything to get out of the bad situation. And with despair—-it's when you have no hope.
- If there's not a verb, what constructions can work like it?
Willing to do anything.
- Desperation—–NOUN.
- Desperate—-ADJECTIVE.
- ? ¿——-VERB
- EDIT
- Cambridge dictionary says:
Desperation(NOUN) the feeling that you have when you are in such a bad situation that you are willing to take risks in order to change it: - Desperate(Adjective): feeling that you have no hope and are ready to do anything to change the bad situation you are in:
No hope
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despair—-NOUN.
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Despair—–VERB
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Despairing—ADJECTIVE.
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EDIT
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Cambridge dictionary says:
Despair(noun): the feeling that there is no hope and that you can do nothing to improve a difficult or worrying situation:
Despair(Verb): to feel despair(noun) about something or someone:
Despairing(adjective): showing or feeling that there is no hope and that you can do nothing to improve a difficult or worrying situation:
Thereby, as we can see, the nouns and adjectives are related because they imply the state of having no hope, but they also imply different reactions.
Best Answer
He may really want to find a gift but if he despairs of finding one, he believes he will not.
The two sentences mean different things.
[despair=to feel despair about something]
despair is a noun and a verb. despairing is a noun (gerund) or an adjective.
desperation and desperate are the noun and adjective that have the same semantic meaning.
He despairs of [whatever] =to believe he will never be able to [whatever]
He is desperate to do [something].
He despairs of finding etc.