desperate straits

1. 1.

   a state of extreme distress

   Synonymsdire straits

   Broaderpass

Questions about desperate straits

What does desperate straits mean?

desperate straits means "a state of extreme distress".

What is another word for desperate straits?

Close synonyms include dire straits. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is desperate straits a common word?

desperate straits is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.