Definitions for: Desolate


[adj] made uninhabitable; "upon this blasted heath"- Shakespeare; "a wasted landscape"
[adj] pitiable in circumstances especially through abandonment; "desolate and despairing"; "left forlorn"
[adj] crushed by grief; "depressed and desolate of soul"; "a low desolate wail"
[adj] providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"
[v] devastate or ravage; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion"
[v] reduce in population; "The epidemic depopulated the countryside"
[v] leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch; "The mother deserted her children"



Webster (1913) Definition: Des"o*late, a. [L. desolatus, p. p. of desolare to
leave alone, forsake; de- + solare to make lonely, solus
alone. See Sole, a.]
1. Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; deserted;
uninhabited; hence, gloomy; as, a desolate isle; a
desolate wilderness; a desolate house.

I will make Jerusalem . . . a den of dragons, and I
will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an
inhabitant. --Jer. ix. 11.

And the silvery marish flowers that throng The
desolate creeks and pools among. --Tennyson.

2. Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed;
as, desolate altars.

3. Left alone; forsaken; lonely; comfortless.

Have mercy upon, for I am desolate. --Ps. xxv. 16.

Voice of the poor and desolate. --Keble.

4. Lost to shame; dissolute. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

5. Destitute of; lacking in. [Obs.]

I were right now of tales desolate. --Chaucer.

Syn: Desert; uninhabited; lonely; waste.


Des"o*late, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Desolated; p. pr. &
vb. n. Desolating.]
1. To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of
inhabitants; as, the earth was nearly desolated by the
flood.

2. To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage; as, a fire desolates a
city.

Constructed in the very heart of a desolating war.
--Sparks.

Synonyms: abandon, bare, barren, blasted, bleak, depopulate, desert, desolated, destroyed, devastate, devastated, disconsolate, forlorn, forsake, forsaken, godforsaken, inconsolable, inhospitable, lay waste to, lorn, ravage, ravaged, ruined, stark, unconsolable, waste, wasted

See Also: destroy, ditch, expose, leave, maroon, reduce, ruin, shrink, strand, walk out

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