desolate

[adjective des-uh-lit; verb des-uh-leyt]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR desolate ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

barren or laid waste; devastated: a treeless, desolate landscape.

deprived or destitute of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited.

solitary; lonely: a desolate place.

having the feeling of being abandoned by friends or by hope; forlorn.

dreary; dismal; gloomy: desolate prospects.

verb (used with object), des·o·lat·ed, des·o·lat·ing.

to lay waste; devastate.

to deprive of inhabitants; depopulate.

to make disconsolate.

to forsake or abandon.

Origin of desolate

1325–75; Middle English < Latin dēsōlātus forsaken, past participle of dēsōlāre, equivalent to dē- de- + sōlāre to make lonely, derivative of sōlus sole¹; see -ate¹

Related formsdes·o·late·ly, adverbdes·o·late·ness, noundes·o·lat·er, des·o·la·tor, nounqua·si-des·o·late, adjectivequa·si-des·o·late·ly, adverb

Can be confuseddesolate dissolute

Synonyms for desolate

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR desolate ON THESAURUS.COM

1. ravaged. 2. desert. 4. lonesome, lost; miserable, wretched, woebegone, woeful, inconsolable, cheerless, hopeless. 6. ravage, ruin. 8. sadden, depress. 9. desert.

Synonym study

4. Desolate, disconsolate, forlorn suggest one who is in a sad and wretched condition. The desolate person is deprived of human consolation, relationships, or presence: desolate and despairing. The disconsolate person is aware of the efforts of others to console and comfort, but is unable to be relieved or cheered by them: She remained disconsolate even in the midst of friends. The forlorn person is lost, deserted, or forsaken by friends: wretched and forlorn in a strange city.

Antonyms for desolate

4. delighted, happy.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for desolate

lonely, uninhabited, isolated, dreary, bare, empty, lonesome, derelict, bleak, forlorn, abandoned, forsaken, ruined, destroyed, waste, desert, blue, dejected, down, black

Examples from the Web for desolate

Contemporary Examples of desolate

Louisa also devotes much of her time to feeding underprivileged children in the desolate Kurland Village in South Africa.
These Female Contemporaries Weren’t Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Louisa Treger
November 20, 2014
Here, only the twisting grey concrete under his tires disturbed the desolate wild.
A Belgian Prince, Gorillas, Guerrillas & the Future of the Congo
Nina Strochlic
November 6, 2014
He was visiting San Francisco and had questions about Desolate Angel.
Kerouac Biographer Gets Back on the Road
Dennis McNally
October 2, 2014
But Nev had been betrayed by his church, and his heart-broken death left his family poor and desolate.
Tim Winton's Beautiful, Baffling 'Eyrie'
Wendy Smith
August 18, 2014
Do you remember the scene in which the mayor and his cronies take Dmitri to this desolate place and threaten him with a gun?
Inside ‘Leviathan’: Russian Filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Award-Winning Anti-Putin Cannes Film
Richard Porton
May 27, 2014

Historical Examples of desolate

Yet all seemed cheerless; for the heart of Paralus was desolate.
Philothea
Lydia Maria Child
He was ashamed to be there—ashamed to meet the desolate and, as he believed, erring sister.
Night and Morning, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
And how desolate was its abandonment, what a stream of silence and solitude it was!
The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete
Emile Zola
To the cast and north of our hill was an expanse of rolling, desolate wilderness.
The Long Labrador Trail
Dillon Wallace
All my plans for my work and my life assumed the most gray and desolate hues.
The Harbor
Ernest Poole

British Dictionary definitions for desolate

desolate

adjective (ˈdɛsəlɪt)

uninhabited; deserted

made uninhabitable; laid waste; devastated

without friends, hope, or encouragement; forlorn, wretched, or abandoned

gloomy or dismal; depressing

verb (ˈdɛsəˌleɪt) (tr)

to deprive of inhabitants; depopulate

to make barren or lay waste; devastate

to make wretched or forlorn

to forsake or abandon

Derived Formsdesolater or desolator, noundesolately, adverbdesolateness, noun

Word Origin for desolate

C14: from Latin dēsōlāre to leave alone, from de- + sōlāre to make lonely, lay waste, from sōlus alone

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for desolate

adj.

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.

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