desolate
Desolate is defined as someone or something which is unhappy or bleak.
(adjective)- A barren and depressing landscape is an example of a desolate landscape.
- A person who is miserable and sad is an example of someone who isdesolate.
The definition of desolate is to abandon or make deserted.
(verb)When you destroy a landscape by polluting and killing all of the greenery, this is an example of when you desolate the landscape.
See desolate in Webster's New World College Dictionary
adjective
- left alone; lonely; solitary
- uninhabited; deserted
- made uninhabitable; laid waste; in a ruinous state
- forlorn; wretched
Origin: ME desolat < L desolatus, pp. of desolare, to leave alone, forsake, strip of inhabitants < de-, intens. + solare, to make lonely < solus, sole
transitive verb desolated, desolating
- to make desolate; rid of inhabitants
- to make uninhabitable; lay waste; devastate
- to forsake; abandon
- to make forlorn, wretched, etc.
Origin: ME desolaten < the adj.
Related Forms:
- desolately adverb
- desolateness noun
- desolator noun or desolater
See desolate in American Heritage Dictionary 4
adjective
- a. Devoid of inhabitants; deserted: “streets which were usually so thronged now grown desolate” (Daniel Defoe).b. Barren; lifeless: the rocky, desolate surface of the moon.
- Rendered unfit for habitation or use: the desolate cities of war-torn Europe.
- Dreary; dismal.
- Bereft of friends or hope; sad and forlorn. See Synonyms at sad.
- To rid or deprive of inhabitants.
- To lay waste; devastate: “Here we have no wars to desolate our fields” (Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur).
- To forsake; abandon.
- To make lonely, forlorn, or wretched.
Origin:
Origin: Middle English desolat
Origin: , from Latin dēsōlātus
Origin: , past participle of dēsōlāre, to abandon
Origin: : dē-, de-
Origin: + sōlus, alone; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots
.Related Forms:
- desˈo·late·ly adverb
- desˈo·late·ness noun
- desˈo·latˌer, desˈo·laˌtor noun
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