Adjacent Words

Desert definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DESERT, a. S as z [L. To sow, plant or scatter.]
1. Literally, forsaken; hence, uninhabited; as a desert isle. Hence, wild; untilled; waste; uncultivated; as a desert land or country.
2. Void; emprty; unoccupied.
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the desert air.
DESERT, n. An uninhabited tract of land; a region in its natural state; a wilderness; a solitude; particularly, a vast sandy plain, as the deserts of Arabia and Africa. But the word may be applied to an uninhabited country covered with wood.
DESERT, v.t. [L. To forsake.]
1. To forsake; to leave utterly; to abandon; to quit with a view not to return to; as, to desert a friend; to desert our country; to desert a cause.
2. To leave, without permission, a military band, or a ship, in which one is enlisted; to forsake the service in which one is engaged, in violation of duty; as, to desert the army; to desert ones colors; to desert a ship.
DESERT, v.i. To run away; to quit a service without permission; as, to desert from the army.
DESERT, n.
1. A deserving; that which gives a right to reward or demands, or which renders liable to punishment; merit or demerit; that which entitles to a recompense of equal to the offense; good conferred, or evil done, which merits an equivalent return. A wise legislature will reward or punish men according to their deserts.
2. That which is deserved; reward or punishment merited. In a future life, every man will receive his desert.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: arid land with little or no vegetation v
1: leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch; "The mother deserted her children" [syn: abandon, forsake, desolate, desert]
2: desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army; "If soldiers deserted Hitler's army, they were shot" [syn: defect, desert]
3: leave behind; "the students deserted the campus after the end of exam period"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin desertum, from Latin, neuter of desertus, past participle of deserere to desert, from de- + serere to join together — more at series Date: 13th century 1. a. arid land with usually sparse vegetation; especially such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of sporadic rainfall annually b. an area of water apparently devoid of life 2. archaic a wild uninhabited and uncultivated tract 3. a desolate or forbidding area <lost in a desert of doubt> • desertic adjective • desertlike adjective II. adjective Date: 13th century 1. desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied <a desert island> 2. of or relating to a desert 3. archaic forsaken III. noun Etymology: Middle English deserte, from Anglo-French, from feminine of desert, past participle of deservir to deserve Date: 13th century 1. the quality or fact of deserving reward or punishment 2. deserved reward or punishment — usually used in plural <got their just deserts> 3. excellence, worth IV. verb Etymology: French dιserter, from Late Latin desertare, frequentative of Latin deserere Date: 1603 transitive verb 1. to withdraw from or leave usually without intent to return <desert a town> 2. a. to leave in the lurch <desert a friend in trouble> b. to abandon (military service) without leave intransitive verb to quit one's post, allegiance, or service without leave or justification; especially to abandon military duty without leave and without intent to return Synonyms: see abandon • deserter noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. v. 1 tr. abandon, give up, leave (deserted the sinking ship). 2 tr. forsake or abandon (a cause or a person, people, etc., having claims on one) (deserted his wife and children). 3 tr. fail (his presence of mind deserted him). 4 intr. Mil. run away (esp. from military service). 5 tr. (as deserted adj.) empty, abandoned (a deserted house). Derivatives: deserter n. (in sense 4 of v.). desertion n. Etymology: F déserter f. LL desertare f. L desertus (as DESERT(2)) 2. n. & adj. --n. a dry barren often sand-covered area of land, characteristically desolate, waterless, and without vegetation; an uninteresting or barren subject, period, etc. (a cultural desert). --adj. 1 uninhabited, desolate. 2 uncultivated, barren. Phrases and idioms: desert boot a suede etc. boot reaching to or extending just above the ankle. desert island a remote (usu. tropical) island presumed to be uninhabited. desert rat Brit. colloq. a soldier of the 7th British armoured division (with the jerboa as a badge) in the N. African desert campaign of 1941-2. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L desertus, eccl.L desertum (n.), past part. of deserere leave, forsake 3. n. 1 (in pl.) a acts or qualities deserving reward or punishment. b such reward or punishment (has got his deserts). 2 the fact of being worthy of reward or punishment; deservingness. Etymology: ME f. OF f. deservir DESERVE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Desert De*sert", n. [OF. deserte, desserte, merit, recompense, fr. deservir, desservir, to merit. See Deserve.] 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. --Ezek. vii. 27. Andronicus, surnamed Pius For many good and great deserts to Rome. --Shak. His reputation falls far below his desert. --A. Hamilton. Syn: Merit; worth; excellence; due.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Desert Des"ert, n. [F. d['e]sert, L. desertum, from desertus solitary, desert, pp. of deserere to desert; de- + serere to join together. See Series.] 1. A deserted or forsaken region; a barren tract incapable of supporting population, as the vast sand plains of Asia and Africa are destitute and vegetation. A dreary desert and a gloomy waste. --Pope. 2. 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. --Is. li. 3. Note: Also figuratively. Before her extended Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life. --Longfellow.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Desert De*sert", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deserted; p. pr. & vb. n. Deserting.] [Cf. L. desertus, p. p. of deserere to desert, F. d['e]serter. See 2d Desert.] 1. 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.'' --Prescott. 2. (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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Desert De*sert", 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. --Bancroft. Syn: To abandon; forsake; leave; relinquish; renounce; quit; depart from; abdicate. See Abandon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Desert Des"ert, a. [Cf. L. desertus, p. p. of deserere, and F. d['e]sert. See 2d Desert.] 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. --Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. --Gray. Desert flora (Bot.), the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and apparently unproductive place. Desert hare (Zo["o]l.), a small hare (Lepus sylvaticus, var. Arizon[ae]) inhabiting the deserts of the Western United States. Desert mouse (Zo["o]l.), an American mouse (Hesperomys eremicus), living in the Western deserts.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(deserted) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A desert is a large area of land, usually in a hot region, where there is almost no water, rain, trees, or plants. ...the Sahara Desert. ...the burning desert sun... N-VAR: oft in names after n 2. If people or animals desert a place, they leave it and it becomes empty. Farmers are deserting their fields and coming here looking for jobs... VERB: V n • deserted She led them into a deserted sidestreet. = empty ADJ 3. If someone deserts you, they go away and leave you, and no longer help or support you. Mrs Roding's husband deserted her years ago... = abandon VERB: V n • desertion (desertions) ...her father's desertion. N-VAR 4. If you desert something that you support, use, or are involved with, you stop supporting it, using it, or being involved with it. The paper's price rise will encourage readers to desert in even greater numbers... He was pained to see many youngsters deserting kibbutz life... Spaniards are worried about German investors deserting Spain for Eastern Europe. VERB: V, V n, V n for n • desertion ...a mass desertion of the Party by the electorate. N-VAR 5. If a quality or skill that you normally have deserts you, you suddenly find that you do not have it when you need it or want it. Even when he appeared to be depressed, a dry sense of humour never deserted him... She lost the next five games, and the set, as her confidence abruptly deserted her. = leave VERB: V n, V n 6. If someone deserts, or deserts a job, especially a job in the armed forces, they leave that job without permission. He was a second-lieutenant in the army until he deserted... He deserted from army intelligence last month... VERB: V, V from n • desertion The high rate of desertion has added to the army's woes... N-VAR 7. If you say that someone has got their just deserts, you mean that they deserved the unpleasant things that have happened to them, because they did something bad. At the end of the book the child's true identity is discovered, and the bad guys get their just deserts. PHRASE [feelings]

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(1.) Heb. midbar, "pasture-ground;" an open tract for pasturage; a common (Joel 2:22). The "backside of the desert" (Ex. 3:1) is the west of the desert, the region behind a man, as the east is the region in front. The same Hebrew word is rendered "wildernes," and is used of the country lying between Egypt and Palestine (Gen. 21:14, 21; Ex. 4:27; 19:2; Josh. 1:4), the wilderness of the wanderings. It was a grazing tract, where the flocks and herds of the Israelites found pasturage during the whole of their journey to the Promised Land.

The same Hebrew word is used also to denote the wilderness of Arabia, which in winter and early spring supplies good pasturage to the flocks of the nomad tribes than roam over it (1 Kings 9:18).

The wilderness of Judah is the mountainous region along the western shore of the Dead Sea, where David fed his father's flocks (1 Sam. 17:28; 26:2). Thus in both of these instances the word denotes a country without settled inhabitants and without streams of water, but having good pasturage for cattle; a country of wandering tribes, as distinguished from that of a settled people (Isa. 35:1; 50:2; Jer. 4:11). Such, also, is the meaning of the word "wilderness" in Matt. 3:3; 15:33; Luke 15:4.

(2.) The translation of the Hebrew _Aribah'_, "an arid tract" (Isa. 35:1, 6; 40:3; 41:19; 51:3, etc.). The name Arabah is specially applied to the deep valley of the Jordan (the Ghor of the Arabs), which extends from the lake of Tiberias to the Elanitic gulf. While _midbar_ denotes properly a pastoral region, _arabah_ denotes a wilderness. It is also translated "plains;" as "the plains of Jericho" (Josh. 5:10; 2 Kings 25:5), "the plains of Moab" (Num. 22:1; Deut. 34:1, 8), "the plains of the wilderness" (2 Sam. 17:16).

(3.) In the Revised Version of Num. 21:20 the Hebrew word _jeshimon_ is properly rendered "desert," meaning the waste tracts on both shores of the Dead Sea. This word is also rendered "desert" in Ps. 78:40; 106:14; Isa. 43:19, 20. It denotes a greater extent of uncultivated country than the other words so rendered. It is especially applied to the desert of the peninsula of Arabia (Num. 21:20; 23:28), the most terrible of all the deserts with which the Israelites were acquainted. It is called "the desert" in Ex. 23:31; Deut. 11:24. (See JESHIMON.)

(4.) A dry place; hence a desolation (Ps. 9:6), desolate (Lev. 26:34); the rendering of the Hebrew word _horbah'_. It is rendered "desert" only in Ps. 102:6, Isa. 48:21, and Ezek. 13:4, where it means the wilderness of Sinai.

(5.) This word is the symbol of the Jewish church when they had forsaken God (Isa. 40:3). Nations destitute of the knowledge of God are called a "wilderness" (32:15, _midbar_). It is a symbol of temptation, solitude, and persecution (Isa. 27:10, _midbar_; 33:9, _arabah_).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

dez'-ert midhbar, chorbah, yeshimon, `arabhah, tsiyah, tohu; eremos, eremia: Midhbar, the commonest word for "desert," more often rendered "wilderness," is perhaps from the root dabhar, in the sense of "to drive," i.e. a place for driving or pasturing flocks. Yeshimon is from yasham, "to be empty", chorbah (compare Arabic kharib, "to lie waste"; khirbah, "a ruin"; kharab, "devastation"), from charabh "to be dry"; compare also `arabh, "to be dry," and `arabhah, "a desert" or "the Arabah" (see CHAMPAIGN). For 'erets tsiyah (Ps 63:1; Isa 41:18), "a dry land," compare tsiyim, "wild beasts of the desert" (Isa 13:21, etc.). Tohu, variously rendered "without form" (Ge 1:2 the King James Version), "empty space," the King James Version "empty place" (Job 26:7), "waste," the King James Version "nothing" (Job 6:18), "confusion," the Revised Version, margin, "wasteness" (Isa 24:10 the English Revised Version), may be compared with Arabic tah, "to go astray" at-Tih, "the desert of the wandering." In the New Testament we find eremos and eremia: "The child (John) .... was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel" (Lu 1:80); "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert" (Joh 6:31 the King James Version).

The desert as known to the Israelites was not a waste of sand, as those are apt to imagine who have in mind the pictures of the Sahara. Great expanses of sand, it is true, are found in Arabia, but the nearest one, an-Nufud, was several days' journey distant from the farthest southeast reached by the Israelites in their wanderings. Most of the desert of Sinai and of Palestine is land that needs only water to make it fruitful. East of the Jordan, the line between "the desert" and "the sown" lies about along the line of the Chijaz railway. To the West there is barely enough water to support the crops of wheat; to the East there is too little. Near the line of demarcation, the yield of wheat depends strictly upon the rainfall. A few inches more or less of rain in the year determines whether the grain can reach maturity or not. The latent fertility of the desert lands is demonstrated by the season of scant rains, when they become carpeted with herbage and flowers. It is marvelous, too, how the camels, sheep and goats, even in the dry season, will find something to crop where the traveler sees nothing but absolute barrenness. The long wandering of the Israelites in "the desert" was made possible by the existence of food for their flocks and herds. Compare Ps 65:11,12: "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; And thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the Wilderness. And the hills are girded with joy"; and also Joe 2:22: "The pastures of the wilderness do spring."

"The desert" or "the wilderness" (ha-midhbar) usually signifies the desert of the wandering, or the northern part of the Sinaitic Peninsula. Compare Ex 3:1 King James Version: "MOSES .... led theflock (of Jethro) to the backside of the desert"; Ex 5:3 King James Version: "Let us go .... three days' journey into the desert"; Ex 19:2 King James Version: "They .... were come to the desert of Sinai"; Ex 23:31 King James Version: "I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river" (Euphrates). Other uncultivated or pasture regions are known as Wilderness of Beersheba (Ge 21:14), West of Judah (Jud 1:16), West of En-gedi (1Sa 24:1), West of Gibeon (2Sa 2:24), West of Maon (1Sa 23:24), West of Damascus; compare Arabic Badiyet-ush-Sham (1Ki 19:15), etc. Midhbar yam, "the wilderness of the sea" (Isa 21:1), may perhaps be that part of Arabia bordering upon the Persian Gulf.

Aside from the towns and fields, practically all the land was midhbar or "desert," for this term included mountain, plain and valley. The terms, "desert of En-gedi," "desert of Maon," etc., do not indicate circumscribed areas, but are applied in a general way to the lands about these places. To obtain water, the shepherds with their flocks traverse long distances to the wells, springs or streams, usually arranging to reach the water about the middle of the day and rest about it for an hour or so, taking shelter from the sun in the shadows of the rocks, perhaps under some overhanging ledge.

Alfred Ely Day

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. Uninhabited, desolate, forsaken, wild, waste, barren, untilled. II. n. Wilderness, waste, solitude, deserted region. III. n. Deserving, due, merit or demerit. IV. v. a. 1. Forsake, leave, quit, abandon, renounce, leave in the lurch, turn one's back upon. 2. Leave unlawfully, run away from. V. v. n. Abandon one's post, run away from military service.

Moby Thesaurus

Arabia Deserta, Death Valley, Lebensraum, Sahara, Saharan, abandon, abscond, absquatulate, acarpous, advantageousness, agreeableness, air space, alkali flat, alluvial plain, anhydrous, apostacize, apostatize, arid, athirst, auspiciousness, back country, bare, barren, barren land, barrens, basin, be unfaithful, beat a retreat, beneficialness, benevolence, benignity, betray, bolt, bone-dry, bottomland, break away, break faith, brush, bush, bushveld, campo, celibate, champaign, champaign country, change sides, chastening, chastisement, childless, chuck, class, clear out, clear space, clearance, clearing, coastal plain, cogency, comeuppance, compensation, cut and run, decamp, defect, degenerate, delta, depart, deserted, deserts, deserving, desolate, desolation, discipline, distant prospect, down, downs, drained, dried-up, droughty, dry, dry as dust, due, dust bowl, dusty, elope, empty, empty view, escape, excellence, exhausted, expedience, fail, fairness, fall away, fall off, fallow, favorableness, fell, fineness, first-rateness, flat, flat country, flatland, flats, flee, fly, forsake, fruitless, fugitate, gaunt, gelded, glade, go, go AWOL, go back on, go over, goodliness, goodness, grace, grass veld, grassland, healthiness, heath, helpfulness, high and dry, howling wilderness, impotent, ineffectual, infecund, infertile, issueless, jejune, jilt, juiceless, jump, jump bail, just deserts, justice, karroo, kindness, lande, leached, leave, let down, levant, level, like parchment, living space, llano, lonely, lowland, lowlands, lunar landscape, lunar mare, lunar waste, make off, mare, maroon, menopausal, merit, mesa, mesilla, moor, moorland, niceness, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, open country, open space, outback, pampa, pampas, pass the buck, payment, peneplain, plain, plains, plateau, playa, pleasantness, prairie, profitableness, pull out, punishment, quality, quit, quittance, rat, recompense, renegade, renege, renounce, reprisal, repudiate, requital, retribution, revenge, reward, rewardingness, right, rights, run, run away, run away from, run away with, run for it, run off, run out on, salt flat, salt marsh, salt pan, sandy, sapless, savanna, sebkha, secede, sell out, shift the blame, shift the responsibility, show the heels, sine prole, skedaddle, skillfulness, skip, skip out, slip the cable, soundness, steppe, sterile, strand, sucked dry, superiority, switch, switch over, table, tableland, take French leave, take flight, take to flight, take wing, teemless, tergiversate, terrain, territory, thirsting, thirsty, throw over, tree veld, tundra, turn, turn against, turn cloak, turn tail, turn traitor, uncultivated, undamped, unfertile, unfruitful, uninhabited, unpeopled, unplowed, unproductive, unprolific, unsown, untilled, unwatered, upland, usefulness, vacant, validity, value, vega, veld, virgin, virtue, virtuousness, waste, wasted, wasteland, waterless, weald, weary waste, what is due, what is merited, wholeness, wide-open spaces, wild, wilderness, wildness, wilds, without issue, wold, worth