desolate

desolate
    adj 1: 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}, {desolate},
           {stark}]
    2: crushed by grief; "depressed and desolate of soul"; "a low
       desolate wail"
    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: reduce in population; "The epidemic depopulated the
       countryside" [syn: {depopulate}, {desolate}]
    3: cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly; "The enemy lay
       waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: {lay waste
       to}, {waste}, {devastate}, {desolate}, {ravage}, {scourge}]
    

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.
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   2. To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage; as, a fire desolates a
      city.
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            Constructed in the very heart of a desolating war.
                                                  --Sparks.
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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.
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            I will make Jerusalem . . . a den of dragons, and I
            will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an
            inhabitant.                           --Jer. ix. 11.
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            And the silvery marish flowers that throng
            The desolate creeks and pools among.  --Tennyson.
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   2. Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed;
      as, desolate altars.
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   3. Left alone; forsaken; lonely; comfortless.
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            Have mercy upon, for I am desolate.   --Ps. xxv. 16.
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            Voice of the poor and desolate.       --Keble.
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   4. Lost to shame; dissolute. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
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   5. Destitute of; lacking in. [Obs.]
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            I were right now of tales desolate.   --Chaucer.

   Syn: Desert; uninhabited; lonely; waste.
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200 Moby Thesaurus words for "desolate":
      abandoned, acarpous, acheronian, afflict, aggrieve, agonize, alone,
      anguish, annihilate, arid, bare, barren, black, bleak, break down,
      bring to ruin, bring to tears, celibate, cheerless, childless,
      comfortless, condemn, confound, consume, crush, crushed, cut up,
      damn, dark, daunt, deal destruction, decimate, deep-troubled,
      defenseless, deject, dejected, demolish, depopulate, depredate,
      depress, depressed, desecrate, desert, deserted, desole, despoil,
      despondent, destitute, destroy, destroyed, devastate, devastated,
      devour, disconsolate, discourage, discouraged, dishearten, dismal,
      dismay, dispeople, dispirit, dispirited, dissolve, distressed,
      down, downcast, downhearted, drained, draw tears, drear, dreary,
      dried-up, dry, embitter, empty, engorge, excruciate, exhausted,
      fallow, fatherless, forlorn, forsaken, friendless, fruitless,
      funereal, gaunt, gelded, gloomy, gobble, gobble up, godforsaken,
      grieve, gut, gut with fire, havoc, heart-stricken, heart-struck,
      heartsick, heartsore, helpless, homeless, hopeless, impotent,
      incinerate, inconsolable, ineffectual, infecund, infertile,
      inundate, isolated, issueless, jejune, joyless, kithless,
      lay in ruins, lay waste, leached, lonely, low-spirited, melancholy,
      menopausal, miserable, motherless, mournful, murky, neglected,
      nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, obliterate,
      oppress, outcast, overwhelm, pillage, poor, poverty-stricken,
      prostrate, ravage, ravaged, raze, remote, ruin, ruinate, ruined,
      sack, sad, sadden, shipwreck, sick, sick at heart, sine prole,
      solitary, somber, sorrow, sorrowful, soul-sick, spiritless,
      spoliate, sterile, stricken, sucked dry, suicidal, swallow up,
      teemless, throw into disorder, torment, torture, unconsolable,
      uncouth, uncultivated, unfertile, unfrequented, unfriended,
      unfruitful, unhappy, uninhabited, unleash destruction,
      unleash the hurricane, unoccupied, unpeople, unplowed,
      unproductive, unprolific, unsown, untilled, upheave, vacant,
      vandalize, vaporize, virgin, waste, wasted, without issue,
      woebegone, woeful, wrack, wreak havoc, wreck, wretched