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Desolate

//ˈdɛs.ə.lət// adj, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.

    "a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house"

  2. 2
    Barren and lifeless.
  3. 3
    Made unfit for habitation or use because of neglect, destruction etc.

    "desolate altars"

  4. 4
    Dismal or dreary.
  5. 5
    Sad, forlorn and hopeless.

    "He was left desolate by the early death of his wife."

Adjective
  1. 1
    crushed by grief wordnet
  2. 2
    providing no shelter or sustenance wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To deprive of inhabitants.

    "If you consider well of the People of the West-Indies, it is very probable, that they are a newer or younger People, than the People of the old World. And it is much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by Earthquakes, […] but rather, it was Desolated by a particular Deluge: For Earthquakes are seldom in those Parts."

  2. 2
    cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly wordnet
  3. 3
    To devastate or lay waste somewhere.

    "Then Moath pointed where a cloud Of Locusts, from the desolated fields Of Syria, wing’d their way."

  4. 4
    reduce in population wordnet
  5. 5
    To abandon or forsake something.

    "It is not to be supposed that when Cush left Armenia, he left it desolate, and that a rich and long settled country was abandoned altogether; for it would be an absurd way of founding an universal empire, to desolate one country in order to people another."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch wordnet
  2. 7
    To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.

    "It is not altogether uncommon to hear a reader whose heart has been desolated by the poignancy of a narrative complain that the writer is unemotional."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English desolat(e). See Etymology 2 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.

Etymology 2

From Middle English desolaten (“to desolate”), from desolat(e) (“desolate”), from Latin dēsōlātus, perfect passive participle of dēsōlō (“to leave alone, make lonely, lay waste, desolate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more.

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