DESERT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Desert

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/dˈɛzərt/ /dɪzˈərt/ Listen

noun

Desert n. That which is deserved; the reward or the punishment justly due; claim to recompense, usually in a good sense; right to reward; merit. "According to their deserts will I judge them." "Andronicus, surnamed Pius For many good and great deserts to Rome." "His reputation falls far below his desert."

Synonyms: Merit; worth; excellence; due.

Desert n.

A deserted or forsaken region; a barren tract incapable of supporting population, as the vast sand plains of Asia and Africa which are destitute of moisture and vegetation. "A dreary desert and a gloomy waste."

A tract, which may be capable of sustaining a population, but has been left unoccupied and uncultivated; a wilderness; a solitary place. "He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." Note: Also figuratively. "Before her extended Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life."

verb

Desert v. t. (past & past part. deserted; pres. part. deserting)

To leave (especially something which one should stay by and support); to leave in the lurch; to abandon; to forsake; implying blame, except sometimes when used of localities; as, to desert a friend, a principle, a cause, one's country. "The deserted fortress."

(Mil.) To abandon (the service) without leave; to forsake in violation of duty; to abscond from; as, to desert the army; to desert one's colors.

Desert v. i. To abandon a service without leave; to quit military service without permission, before the expiration of one's term; to abscond. "The soldiers... deserted in numbers."

Synonyms: To abandon; forsake; leave; relinquish; renounce; quit; depart from; abdicate. See Abandon.

adjective

Desert adj. Of or pertaining to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. "He... went aside privately into a desert place." "Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Desert flora (Bot.), the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and apparently unproductive place.

Desert hare (Zool.), a small hare (Lepus sylvaticus, var. Arizonae) inhabiting the deserts of the Western United States.

Desert mouse (Zool.), an American mouse (Hesperomys eremicus), living in the Western deserts.

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Etymology of 'Desert'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Desert" Quotes from Famous Books

... was to make a voyage of discovery to Tabor Island, although Harding could not approve of a voyage simply for curiosity's sake, for there was evidently nothing to be found on this desert and almost arid rock. A voyage of a hundred and fifty miles in a comparatively small vessel, over unknown seas, could not but cause him some anxiety. Suppose that their vessel, once out at sea, should be unable to reach Tabor Island, and could not return to Lincoln Island, ...

— The Mysterious Island • Jules Verne

... a smile.) Lawyer! I cannot bear that name; it conveys the idea of an entangled net, or of a deceitful guide, that will lead you out of the way into the pathless desert. We should not be called Lawyers, ...

— The Lawyers, A Drama in Five Acts • Augustus William Iffland

... through the very middle of the salt-sea billows, rise up, in shining columns, fountains of fresh water.[Footnote: See Mr. Yates's 'Annotations upon Fellowes's Researches in Anatolia,' as one authority for this singular phenomenon.] In the desert of the sea are found Arabian fountains of Ishmael and Isaac! Are these fountains poisoned for the poor victim of fever, because they have to travel through a contagion of waters not potable? Oh, ...

— Theological Essays and Other Papers v1 • Thomas de Quincey

... emphatically declined to adopt. Death would be preferable to that. He would not desert those who had so nobly ...

— The Giraffe Hunters • Mayne Reid

... a preacher. Many years afterward he wrote of that disappointment as follows: "For five years I saw myself sitting idly by the wayside, hopeless and discouraged. I felt somewhat like a traveler, parched with thirst, on a wide and weary desert, who sees the mirage of green trees and springs of cool water that has mocked his vision, slowly fade away out of his sight. So seemed to perish my castles in the air. At that time making proclamation of the ancient gospel was too vigorous a work, and too full of hardship ...

— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler • Pardee Butler

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