desert
1 Americannoun
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a region so arid because of little rainfall that it supports only sparse and widely spaced vegetation or no vegetation at all.
The Sahara is a vast sandy desert.
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any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil.
- Synonyms:
- wasteland
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an area of the ocean in which it is believed no marine life exists.
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(formerly) any unsettled area between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains thought to be unsuitable for human habitation.
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any place lacking in something.
The town was a cultural desert.
- Synonyms:
- wasteland
verb (used with object)
-
deserts,
present (3rd person singular)
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deserted,
past participle, past
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deserting
present participle
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to leave (a person, place, etc.) without intending to return, especially in violation of a duty, promise, or the like.
He deserted his wife.
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(of military personnel) to leave or run away from (service, duty, etc.) with the intention of never returning.
Terrified of the approaching battle, he deserted his post just before dawn.
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to fail (someone) at a time of need.
None of his friends had deserted him.
verb (used without object)
-
deserts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
deserted,
past participle, past
-
deserting
present participle
noun
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Usually deserts reward or punishment that is deserved.
Death was his desert.
- Synonyms:
- justice, reward, recompense, payment, due, penalty, retribution, retaliation
-
the state or fact of deserving reward or punishment.
-
the state or condition of being worthy, as in character or behavior.
idioms
noun
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(often plural) something that is deserved or merited; just reward or punishment
-
the state of deserving a reward or punishment
-
virtue or merit
verb
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(tr) to leave or abandon (a person, place, etc) without intending to return, esp in violation of a duty, promise, or obligation
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military to abscond from (a post or duty) with no intention of returning
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(tr) to fail (someone) in time of need
his good humour temporarily deserted him
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(tr) Scots law to give up or postpone (a case or charge)
noun
-
a region that is devoid or almost devoid of vegetation, esp because of low rainfall
-
an uncultivated uninhabited region
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a place which lacks some desirable feature or quality
a cultural desert
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(modifier) of, relating to, or like a desert; infertile or desolate
Synonym Usage
Desert, waste, wilderness refer to areas that are largely uninhabited. Desert emphasizes lack of water (though not specifically high temperature); it refers to a dry, barren, treeless region, usually sandy: a high-altitude frozen desert. Waste emphasizes lack of inhabitants and of cultivation; it is used of wild, barren land: a desolate waste. Wilderness emphasizes the difficulty of finding one's way, whether because of barrenness or of dense vegetation: a trackless wilderness.
Desert, abandon, forsake mean to leave behind persons, places, or things. Desert implies intentionally violating an oath, formal obligation, or duty: to desert campaign pledges. Abandon suggests giving up wholly and finally, whether of necessity, unwillingly, or through shirking responsibilities: to abandon a hopeless task; abandon a child. Forsake has emotional connotations, since it implies violating obligations of affection or association: to forsake a noble cause.
Desert, merit, worth refer to the quality in a person, action, or thing that entitles recognition, especially favorable recognition. Desert is the quality that entitles one to a just reward: according to her deserts. Merit is usually the excellence that entitles to praise: a person of great merit. Worth is always used in a favorable sense and signifies inherent value or goodness: The worth of your contribution is incalculable.
Closer Look
A desert is defined not by temperature but by the sparse amount of water found in a region. An area with an annual rainfall of fewer than 25 centimeters (9.75 inches) generally qualifies as a desert. In spite of the dryness, however, some animals and plants have adapted to desert life and thrive in these harsh environments. While different animals live in different types of deserts, the dominant animals of warm deserts are reptiles, including snakes and lizards, small mammals, such as ground squirrels and mice, and arthropods, such as scorpions and beetles. These animals are usually nocturnal, spending the day resting in the shade of plants or burrowed in the ground, and emerging in the evenings to hunt or eat. Warm-desert plants are mainly ground-hugging shrubs, small wooded trees, and cacti. Plant and animal life is scarcer in the cool desert, where the precipitation falls mainly as snow. Plants are generally scattered mosses and grasses that are able to survive the cold by remaining low to the ground, avoiding the wind, and animal life can include both large and small mammals, such as deer and jackrabbits, as well as a variety of raptors and other birds.
Pop Culture
— Desert : A novel by Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2008. The book, first published in French in 1980, was translated into English in 2009. — Operation Desert Storm: An air campaign by the U.S. during the 1990–91 Gulf War. — Conflict: Desert Storm: The first in the Conflict series of video games by game developers Pivotal Games. Released in 2002, it is set during the 1990–91 Gulf War.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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desertednessnoun
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deserternoun
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desertedadjective
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deserticadjective
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desertlikeadjective
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desertedlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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desertsimple
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desertssimple
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have desertedperfect
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has desertedperfect
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am desertingprogressive
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are desertingprogressive
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is desertingprogressive
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have been desertingperfect progressive
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has been desertingperfect progressive
Past
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desertedsimple
-
had desertedperfect
-
was desertingprogressive
-
were desertingprogressive
-
had been desertingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of desert1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English adjective desert, deserd, diserte “barren, unproductive, dried up (lake), deserted (city),” from Anglo-French, Old French des(s)ert “uncultivated; without inhabitants,” from Late Latin dēsertum (neuter), noun use of past participle of Latin dēserere “to abandon, forsake,” equivalent to dē- prefix meaning “from, away from, out of ” + serere “to join together (in a line)”; see origin at de-, series
Origin of desert2
First recorded in 1470–80; from Middle French déserter, from Medieval Latin dēsertāre “to desert; lay waste,” frequentative of Latin dēserere “to part company, leave, forsake,” literally “to undo the links,” equivalent to dē- prefix meaning “from, away from” + serere “to link together, entwine, interlace”; see also desert 1
Origin of desert3
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English noun desert, deseert, decert(e), from Old French deserte, noun use of feminine past participle of deservir “to serve devotedly”; see origin at deserve
Explanation
A desert is a very dry area of land where few plants and animals can live. If you find yourself stranded in the middle of the desert, you'll have no company except for the occasional lizard or scorpion. Desert comes from the Latin desertus, for abandoned or lying in waste. This can refer to a vast sandy area without vegetation, or any empty, lifeless expanse. As a verb, it means to leave someone or something. A soldier who runs away from the army is called a deserter. Occasionally you'll hear someone say, "He got his just deserts," which doesn't have anything to do with abandonment; it means he got what he deserved.
Vocabulary lists containing desert
Physical Geography - Introductory
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Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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The American Civil War
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“All I needed was a desert landscape and American homes. I could have definitely shot it in L.A. comfortably. Had I gotten more support and made it make sense for us financially,” Ray said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
It says a prickly desert plant called hesperaloe produces fiber that can make stronger and softer paper products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
The Nazca Lines are a group of geoglyphs etched into the desert sands that date back to between 500 BC and 500 AD.
From Barron's ● Aug. 2, 2026
Jumoke can be seen kneeling in front of a younger version of her daughter in the desert, telling her: "You must not be afraid."
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
We had a long day to kill before entering the dreaded desert, which you may know has the tallest sand dunes in the known world.
From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri
Important fossil sites do not always require travel to distant deserts or remote continents.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
On Sundays, iron curtains roll shut, turning city centers into eerie, echoey deserts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
They then used machine-learning models that incorporated environmental data from deserts, tundra, forests, and other ecosystems to predict fungal network density in regions where direct measurements were unavailable.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 15, 2026
On a blind date, his descriptions of magical griffins and burning deserts sound humiliatingly immature.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
And while views of the surrounding mountains and deserts were spectacular, the army built high fences around the entire lab—making the scientists feel like prisoners.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
To test the concept, Srinivasan headed to a nearly deserted artificial island about 100 miles from the equator.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
Returning to her home briefly on Sunday to get medicine, she said the streets were deserted and her house had been covered in ash.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
She added she was allowed a brief visit to her house Sunday to get medicine, to find it covered in ash and the streets deserted.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
In “God Knows Where I Am,” Linda Bishop, diagnosed variously as having “bipolar disorder with psychosis” or schizoaffective disorder, drifts “between shelters, hospitals, and jail” before finding refuge in a deserted farmhouse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
The deserted campground seemed eerie, like a ghost town.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
But a major reason for voters deserting the party in past elections was inflation, an unwelcome phenomenon for households after several decades of stable or falling prices.
From Barron's ● Feb. 9, 2026
Despite losing his beloved horse, he told the BBC in 2011 - on the 30th anniversary of Shergar's biggest triumph - that he did not contemplate deserting his Irish breeding operation.
From BBC ● Feb. 4, 2025
But the Syrian army collapsed with surprising ease, with many troops deserting the battlefield, in the face of the HTS rebels’ onslaught.
From Slate ● Dec. 5, 2024
He treats his troops abominably, whether he’s deserting them in Egypt, condemning them to a death march through a Russian winter or sending them into the hopeless onslaught of Waterloo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
A few of them are eating, which makes me feel better about deserting the lunchroom.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
