desolate Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
abandon; desert; forsake.
- The mother deserted her children
verb reduce in population
depopulate.
- The epidemic depopulated the countryside
verb cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
devastate; scourge; lay waste to; ravage; waste.
- The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion
adjective satellite providing no shelter or sustenance
barren; bare; stark; bleak.
- bare rocky hills
- barren lands
- the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes
- the desolate surface of the moon
- a stark landscape
adjective satellite crushed by grief
- depressed and desolate of soul
- a low desolate wail

L. desolatus, p. p. of desolare to leave alone, forsake; de- + solare to make lonely, solus alone. See Sole, a.

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 desolate creeks and pools among. Tennyson.
Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed; as, desolate altars.
Left alone; forsaken; lonely; comfortless.
Have mercy upon, for I am desolate. Ps. xxv. 16.

Voice of the poor and desolate. Keble.
Lost to shame; dissolute. Obs. Chaucer.
Destitute of; lacking in. Obs.
I were right now of tales desolate. Chaucer.
Syn. -- Desert; uninhabited; lonely; waste.

imperfect & past participle Desolated; present participle & verbal noun Desolating

To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of inhabitants; as, the earth was nearly desolated by the flood.
To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage; as, a fire desolates a city.
Constructed in the very heart of a desolating war. Sparks.