desolate
barren or laid waste; devastated: a treeless, desolate landscape.
deprived or destitute of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited.
to lay waste; devastate.
to deprive of inhabitants; depopulate.
to make disconsolate.
to forsake or abandon.
Origin of desolate
1synonym study For desolate
Other words for desolate
Opposites for desolate
Other words from desolate
- des·o·late·ly, adverb
- des·o·late·ness, noun
- des·o·lat·er, des·o·la·tor, noun
- qua·si-des·o·late, adjective
- qua·si-des·o·late·ly, adverb
Words that may be confused with desolate
- desolate , dissolute
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use desolate in a sentence
Without any money for additional workers, the couple worked the desolate fields all day, likening themselves to Adam and Eve.
Minari and the Real Korean-American Immigrants Who Have Farmed U.S. Soil for More Than a Century | Andrew R. Chow | February 12, 2021 | TimeWith visitors expected to adhere to strict quarantine rules, or banned from visiting countries altogether, once busy airports and hotels have become desolate.
What should be a joyous and celebratory event has turned into a desolate scene where millions fear for the safety of the incoming president and vice president.
Because the moon is a desolate place with no atmosphere, its surface is a pristine record of meteorite impacts over time.
This is what NASA wants to do when it gets to the moon | Neel Patel | December 9, 2020 | MIT Technology ReviewFor two hours she sat desolately on the horse block and then sadly entered the house with a cold in her head.
The Incubator Baby | Ellis Parker Butler
As the light broke over the bay, coldly pink and desolately gleaming, Captain Joe got up and looked about him.
Earth's Enigmas | Charles G. D. RobertsFor with all her activity and with all the attention she seemed to receive, Cordelia's life was still a desolately lonely one.
The Silver Poppy | Arthur StringerIt was a gloomy winter's day, the waters rolled on black and sullen, and the dry leaves rustled desolately beneath my feet.
Eugene Aram, Complete | Edward Bulwer-LyttonShe stayed all day in a flat, desolately quiet, waiting for one moment when the dearest and best came home.
Married Life | May Edginton
British Dictionary definitions for desolate
uninhabited; deserted
made uninhabitable; laid waste; devastated
without friends, hope, or encouragement; forlorn, wretched, or abandoned
gloomy or dismal; depressing
to deprive of inhabitants; depopulate
to make barren or lay waste; devastate
to make wretched or forlorn
to forsake or abandon
Origin of desolate
1Derived forms of desolate
- desolater or desolator, noun
- desolately, adverb
- desolateness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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