Desert

Quick meaning: Desert is a noun meaning A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.

Meaning

A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.

More Meanings

1. (figuratively) Any barren place or situation.
2. Usually of a place: abandoned, deserted, or uninhabited.
3. To leave one's duty or post, especially to leave a military or naval unit without permission.
4. (often in the plural; now chiefly technical (in philosophy) or fossil) That which is deserved or merited; a just punishment or reward.
5. To leave (anything that depends on one's presence to survive, exist, or succeed), especially when contrary to a promise or obligation; to abandon; to forsake.
6. Obsolete form of dessert.

Example Sentences

He […] went aside privately into a desert place.

They were marooned on a desert island in the Pacific.

Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.

By contrast, the WR route is an economic desert between Newbury and Taunton.

Word Forms

• deserts
• deserting
• deserted

Synonyms for desert

Depending on context, synonyms include forsaken, peopleless, vacant, abandoned, derelict, deserted.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include abandon, forsake, defect, waste, desolate, inhospitable.

Commonly Confused & Compared Words

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