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desolate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
desolate
I.adjective
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Radin's body was found in a desolate canyon about 65 miles north of Los Angeles.
▪ the desolate terrain of the moon
▪ The little mining town was desolate and ugly.
▪ We looked out over a desolate landscape of bare trees and stony fields.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But downtown is desolate with empty storefronts.
▪ In some of the more desolate regions, half of the active population is out of work.
▪ One imagines with misgiving the last scene on desolate Eldey.
▪ The desolate quietness was almost painful.
▪ The bus station was similarly desolate, while the cinema, cultural centre, public baths and a hospital have closed.
▪ There are stretches of land scattered throughout the United States that have become so desolate they are the stuff of legends.
▪ To people who work outside all day this is one of the most desolate sounds known.
▪ We sat still in the desolate space for several hours before we surmised that evidently we were free to go.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Andropulos was desolated by the deaths of his friends.
▪ Drought had desolated the farming town.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Lesley-Jane was desolated, but desolated.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Desolate

Desolate \Des"o*late\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Desolated; p. pr. & vb. n. Desolating.]

  1. To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of inhabitants; as, the earth was nearly desolated by the flood.

  2. To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage; as, a fire desolates a city.

    Constructed in the very heart of a desolating war.
    --Sparks.

Desolate

Desolate \Des"o*late\, a. [L. desolatus, p. p. of desolare to leave alone, forsake; de- + solare to make lonely, solus alone. See Sole, a.]

  1. Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited; hence, gloomy; as, a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house.

    I will make Jerusalem . . . a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
    --Jer. ix. 11.

    And the silvery marish flowers that throng The desolate creeks and pools among.
    --Tennyson.

  2. Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed; as, desolate altars.

  3. Left alone; forsaken; lonely; comfortless.

    Have mercy upon, for I am desolate.
    --Ps. xxv. 16.

    Voice of the poor and desolate.
    --Keble.

  4. Lost to shame; dissolute. [Obs.]
    --Chaucer.

  5. Destitute of; lacking in. [Obs.]

    I were right now of tales desolate.
    --Chaucer.

    Syn: Desert; uninhabited; lonely; waste.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
desolate

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

late 14c., from desolate (adj.). Related: Desolated; desolating.

Wiktionary
desolate

  1. 1 deserted and devoid of inhabitants. 2 barren and lifeless. 3 made unfit for habitation or use; laid waste; neglected; destroyed. 4 dismal or dreary. 5 sad, forlorn and hopeless. v

  2. 1 To deprive of inhabitants. 2 To devastate or lay waste somewhere. 3 To abandon or forsake something. 4 To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.

WordNet
desolate

  1. adj. providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape" [syn: bare, barren, bleak, stark]

  2. pitiable in circumstances especially through abandonment; "desolate and despairing"; "left forlorn" [syn: forlorn, godforsaken, lorn]

  3. crushed by grief; "depressed and desolate of soul"; "a low desolate wail"

  4. made uninhabitable; "upon this blasted heath"- Shakespeare; "a wasted landscape" [syn: blasted, desolated, devastated, ravaged, ruined, wasted]

desolate

  1. v. leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch; "The mother deserted her children" [syn: abandon, forsake, desert]

  2. reduce in population; "The epidemic depopulated the countryside" [syn: depopulate]

  3. devastate or ravage; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: lay waste to, waste, devastate, ravage, scourge]

Wikipedia
Desolate (album)

Desolate is the second studio EP by American post-hardcore band Set The Sun, released on September 21, 2011.

Usage examples of "desolate".

Young Chouart ranged the swamps and woods for Indians, and Radisson had paddled down the Hayes from meeting some Assiniboine hunters, when, to his amazement, there rolled across the wooded swamps the most astonishing report that could be heard in desolate solitudes.

As had the desolate, roving packs of unemployed Cols, not to mention the unhappy lower fringes of the white in-group .

The child had the family nose, beaked and noble if overlarge on such a small face, and the wiry build common to the countryfolk in this desolate region.

No longer did the strongly-built Bordj seem to Domini like a fort threatening the oncomer, but like a stalwart host welcoming him, a host who kept open house in this treeless desolation that yet had, for her, no feature that was desolate.

Greek colonies, the opulence and power of Sicily alone might have equalled the widest scope that could be acquired and desolated by the sword of war.

The whole breadth of Europe, as it extends above five hundred miles from the Euxine to the Hadriatic, was at once invaded, and occupied, and desolated, by the myriads of Barbarians whom Attila led into the field.

Once the snow melted, in the eight-days ahead, he hoped that the spring grasses would cover that desolate grayness quickly.

I realized that I would feel much less desolate if I could keep Greatheart with me.

They desolated the country as far as Ancas-mayu and Otabalo, those who escaped from the fury of the Incas taking refuge in the fortress.

And the city was full of music, of tomtoms throbbing, of bugles blowing in the Kasba, of pipes shrieking from hidden dwellings, and of the faint but multitudinous voices of men, carried to them on their desolate and treeless height by the frail wind of night that seemed a white wind, twin-brother of the sands.

Then, Monsieur le Prince, with his story of desolate Kerguelen, completed the feeling.

The garret of the house that Legree occupied, like most other garrets, was a great, desolate space, dusty, hung with cobwebs, and littered with cast-off lumber.

I left the desolate city of Managua, accepting a ride out in a Mercedes-Benz police car, and resumed my quest.

The Margate Hook and the havoc it wreaked with the occasional passing ship made one of the few consolations of living on this desolate edge of Kent.

Even though he meets his end out in this desolate waste, he is after all Tameyoshi of the Genji and deserves to die as a fine warrior should.