desolate
pronunciation
How to pronounce desolate in British English:
UK [ˈdesələt , ˈdesəleɪt]
How to pronounce desolate in American English:
US [ˈdesələt , ˈdesəleɪt]
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- Verb:
- leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
- reduce in population
- devastate or ravage
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- Adjective:
- providing no shelter or sustenance
- pitiable in circumstances especially through abandonment
- crushed by grief
- made uninhabitable
Word Origin
- desolate
- desolate: see sole
- desolate (adj.)
- mid-14c., "without companions," also "uninhabited," from Latin desolatus, past participle of desolare "leave alone, desert," from de- "completely" (see de-) + solare "make lonely," from solus "alone" (see sole (adj.)). Sense of "joyless" is 15c.
- desolate (v.)
- late 14c., from desolate (adj.). Related: Desolated; desolating.
Example
- 1. Her house stood at the end of a desolate street .
- 2. Dust storms are not a new phenomenon - this image , from 1955 , shows a huge dust storm raging over a desolate texas farm .
- 3. About 1300 residents of qingshan township have been moved to xiangbei farm , desolate land where a prison once stood .
- 4. Today , it 's a desolate , crumbling rock in the middle of the east china sea , battered by hurricanes so severe it 's impossible to land on the island most days of the year .
- 5. Her lot is to be wooed and won ; and if unhappy in her love , her heart is like some fortress that has been captured , and sacked , and abandoned , and left desolate .