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Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited; hence, gloomy; as, a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house. I will make Jerusalem . . . a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. Jer. ix. 11. And the silvery marish flowers that throng The desolat…

In a desolate manner.

The state of being desolate.

One who, or that which, desolates or lays waste. Mede.

desire. Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage. Addison. To assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man Burke. The fount at which the panting mind assuages Her thirst of knowledge. Byron.

Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds. Wastes too bleak to rear The common growth of earth, the foodful ear. Wordsworth. At daybreak, on the bleak sea beach. Longfellow.

opposite in derange, deform, destroy, etc. It is intensive in deprave, despoil, declare, desolate, etc.

ng to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Gray. Desert flora (Bot…

The state of being desolated or laid waste; ruin; solitariness; destitution; gloominess. You would have sold your king to slaughter, . . . And his whole kingdom into desolation. Shak.

Same as Desolater. Byron.

One who destroys, ruins, kills, or desolates.

To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate. Whole countries . . . were devastated. Macaulay.

To deprive of inhabitants; to depopulate. Leave the land dispeopled and desolate. Sir T. More. A certain island long before dispeopled . . . by sea rivers. Milton.

To desolate or lay waste utterly. [Obs.] Spenser.

e occasion of contempt; the object of scorn and derision. [Archaic] I will make this city desolate, and a hissing. Jer. xix. 8.

ind. Sir W. Scott. Howling monkey. (Zoöl.) See Howler, 2. -- Howling wilderness, a wild, desolate place inhabited only by wild beasts. Deut. xxxii. 10.

a ship. -- To lay wait for, to lie in ambush for. -- To lay waste, to destroy; to make desolate; as, to lay waste the land.

ral dominions -- France, Savoy, and Switzerland. Fuller. Lords of waste marches, kings of desolate isles. Tennyson.

To put (a person) ashore on a desolate island or coast and leave him to his fate. Marooning party, a social excursion party that sojourns several days on the shore or in some retired place; a prolonged picnic. [Southern U. S.] Bartlett.

her skillful art. Spenser. Whose tender power Passes the strength of storms in their most desolate hour. Byron.