desolation
an act or instance of destroying or devastating land, population, community, etc: The war’s desolation of the land destroyed years of hard and hopeful work.
the state of being destroyed or devastated, as land, population, community, etc.: The utter desolation of the Western Front was captured in unforgettable photographs.
dreariness; barrenness: The poet fashions a mood of desolation and despair in his works.
deprivation of companionship; loneliness: Some homesteaders could not endure the desolation of life on the prairie, and returned to the city.
sorrow; grief; woe: She was so deep in her desolation, we don’t know if our words of comfort reached her.
a desolate place: The town was once a desolation.
Origin of desolation
1Words Nearby desolation
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use desolation in a sentence
When I was 19—long before I ever thought I would land a career writing about space—I dreamed I was standing on the surface of Mars, looking over a rusted desert dotted with rocks, stuck in a perpetual lukewarm dusk, transfixed by the desolation.
I taught myself to lucid dream. You can too. | Neel V. Patel | August 25, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewA breakup letter from you after 10 months once again sows in me the same desolation of that goodbye.
All the little rootlets of sentiment which must be cut off in the process bleed and suffer and a period of desolation as well as isolation must ensue in all such cases.
Tucker Carlson’s espousal of ‘replacement’ theory is both toxic and ahistoric | Philip Bump | April 9, 2021 | Washington PostUnlike corporate behemoths of an earlier age, Amazon doesn’t want an enormous corporate campus, with a security perimeter, designated entrances and a lush landscape of meticulously curated grassy desolation and green despair.
The Helix is a distraction. Amazon’s new headquarters will change more than just its Arlington neighborhood. | Philip Kennicott | February 18, 2021 | Washington PostSaudi photographer Moath Alofi evokes desolation with a wide shot of desert sprinkled with abandoned cars.
In the galleries: Middle East artists examine sheltering in place amid pandemic | Mark Jenkins | January 15, 2021 | Washington Post
It is the desolation of exiled Tibetans that dominates the tenor here, but it is not the only one.
As you work through the collection, the scenes become more stagnant, more still, as desolation takes over.
David Lynch Goes From Film to Photos with ‘The Factory Photographs’ | Nico Hines | January 22, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe first is our quintessentially modern desolation, a “falling in all directions.”
Some people assume that if you can't speak or hear, you live in a cage of silence and desolation.
This Is What It Is Like To Be Deaf From Birth | Quora Contributor | December 23, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHis up-tempo songs had undercurrents of solitude, and the ballads that became his specialty were suffused with stoic desolation.
The door was open, and the woman and the child stood dumbfounded and overwhelmed in a scene of incredible desolation.
Rosemary in Search of a Father | C. N. WilliamsonFor the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousUnder the type of breaking a potter's vessel, the prophet foresheweth the desolation of the Jews for their sins.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousAnd all this land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment: and all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousA prophecy of the desolation of Moab for their pride: but their captivity shall at last be released.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | Various
British Dictionary definitions for desolation
/ (ˌdɛsəˈleɪʃən) /
the act of desolating or the state of being desolated; ruin or devastation
solitary misery; wretchedness
a desolate region; barren waste
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
Browse