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desert

¹ American  

[dez-ert] / ˈdɛz ərt /

noun

1. 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.

   Synonyms:

   wasteland, waste

2. any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil.

   Synonyms:

   wasteland

3. an area of the ocean in which it is believed no marine life exists.

4. (formerly) any unsettled area between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains thought to be unsuitable for human habitation.

5. any place lacking in something.

   The town was a cultural desert.

   Synonyms:

   wasteland

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or like a desert.

   a desert landscape.

   Synonyms:

   arid, infertile, barren, desolate

2. occurring, living, or flourishing in the desert.

   a desert tribe; a desert palm.

3. designed or suitable for wear in the desert, as cool, protective clothing.

   a big, wide-brimmed desert hat.

desert ² American  

[dih-zurt] / dɪˈzɜrt /

verb (used with object)

deserts, present (3rd person singular) deserted, past participle, past deserting present participle

1. to leave (a person, place, etc.) without intending to return, especially in violation of a duty, promise, or the like.

   He deserted his wife.

   Synonyms:

   forsake, quit, leave, abandon

2. (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.

3. to fail (someone) at a time of need.

   None of his friends had deserted him.

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verb (used without object)

deserts, present (3rd person singular) deserted, past participle, past deserting present participle

1. to forsake or leave one's duty, obligations, etc. (sometimes followed by from, to, etc.).

   Many deserted during the food shortage.

   Synonyms:

   resign, abdicate

2. (of military personnel) to leave service, duty, etc., with no intention of returning.

   Troops were deserting to the enemy.

   Synonyms:

   go AWOL

desert ³ American  

[dih-zurt] / dɪˈzɜrt /

noun

1. Usually deserts reward or punishment that is deserved.

   Death was his desert.

   Synonyms:

   justice, reward, recompense, payment, due, penalty, retribution, retaliation

2. the state or fact of deserving reward or punishment.

3. the state or condition of being worthy, as in character or behavior.

   Synonyms:

   worth, virtue, merit

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idioms

1. get / receive / etc. one's (just) deserts, to be punished or rewarded in a manner appropriate to one's actions or behavior.

   Some people felt he had gotten his just deserts, having been imprisoned and relieved of his ill-gotten gains, but others would have preferred old-style public flogging, followed by drawing and quartering, and who can blame them?

desert ¹ British  

/ dɪˈzɜːt /

noun

1. (often plural) something that is deserved or merited; just reward or punishment

2. the state of deserving a reward or punishment

3. virtue or merit

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desert ² British  

/ dɪˈzɜːt /

verb

1. (tr) to leave or abandon (a person, place, etc) without intending to return, esp in violation of a duty, promise, or obligation

2. military to abscond from (a post or duty) with no intention of returning

3. (tr) to fail (someone) in time of need

   his good humour temporarily deserted him

4. (tr) Scots law to give up or postpone (a case or charge)

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desert ³ British  

/ ˈdɛzət /

noun

1. a region that is devoid or almost devoid of vegetation, esp because of low rainfall

2. an uncultivated uninhabited region

3. a place which lacks some desirable feature or quality

   a cultural desert

4. (modifier) of, relating to, or like a desert; infertile or desolate

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desert Scientific  

/ dĕz′ərt /

1. A large, dry, barren region, usually having sandy or rocky soil and little or no vegetation. Water lost to evaporation and transpiration in a desert exceeds the amount of precipitation; most deserts average less than 25 cm (9.75 inches) of precipitation each year, concentrated in short local bursts. Deserts cover about one fifth of the Earth's surface, with the principal warm deserts located mainly along the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, where warm, rising equatorial air masses that have already lost most of their moisture descend over the subtropical regions. Cool deserts are located at higher elevations in the temperate regions, often on the lee side of a barrier mountain range where the prevailing winds drop their moisture before crossing the range.

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desert More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing desert

• just deserts

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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

• desertedness
  noun
• deserter
  noun
• deserted
  adjective
• desertic
  adjective
• desertlike
  adjective
• desertedly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• deserting
  present
• deserted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• desert
  simple
• deserts
  simple
• have deserted
  perfect
• has deserted
  perfect
• am deserting
  progressive
• are deserting
  progressive
• is deserting
  progressive
• have been deserting
  perfect progressive
• has been deserting
  perfect progressive

Past

• deserted
  simple
• had deserted
  perfect
• was deserting
  progressive
• were deserting
  progressive
• had been deserting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will desert
  simple
• will have deserted
  perfect
• will be deserting
  progressive
• will have been deserting
  perfect progressive

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

desert deserts deserted deserting

It was on desert land, unattended to for years, Melucci remembers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

Savannah looked out the airplane window as she passed over the desert expanse, where she feared her mother had been abandoned without ceremony or her family’s prayers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 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

I knew if the caravan abandoned me here in the desert, I would be a wandering animal and very soon dead.

From "The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams" by Daniel Nayeri

From the bustling labs of the Northeast to the remote deserts of the Southwest, American ingenuity can be found everywhere.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

There was below-normal precipitation in interior areas like the Sierra Nevada and southeastern state deserts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 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

Descendants of the Siberians settled the thick forests of the eastern United States, the swamps of the Mississippi Delta, the deserts of Mexico and steaming jungles of Central America.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

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

Adalberto Maypora, a well-known character around town, inspects his fishing boat on a deserted beach nestled between cliffs.

From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 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

Her father deserted the family early on, leaving her mother to raise two daughters at a time when women were at a significant disadvantage in the job market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026

Several hours after Dolley fled, President Madison arrived safely back at the mostly deserted White House.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

He was arguing defiantly he would carry on, but that defiance drained away as it became clear his capacity to viably govern was deserting him.

From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026

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

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

For the first time since my family and then the Washburns left, I feel angry at all of them for deserting us.

From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

• betray
• bolt
• depart
• escape
• flee
• forsake
• give up
• quit
• vacate