desolate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
    abandon; desert; forsake.
    • The mother deserted her children
  2. verb reduce in population
    depopulate.
    • The epidemic depopulated the countryside
  3. verb cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
    devastate; scourge; lay waste to; ravage; waste.
    • The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion
  4. adjective satellite providing no shelter or sustenance
    barren; bare; stark; bleak.
    • bare rocky hills
    • barren lands
    • the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes
    • the desolate surface of the moon
    • a stark landscape
  5. adjective satellite crushed by grief
    • depressed and desolate of soul
    • a low desolate wail

WordNet


Des"o*late adjective
Etymology
L. desolatus, p. p. of desolare to leave alone, forsake; de- + solare to make lonely, solus alone. See Sole, a.
Definitions
  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 transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Desolated; present participle & verbal noun Desolating
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913