desert
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdɛz.ət/
enpr: dĕz'ərt
ipa: /ˈdɛz.ɚt/
note: Appalachians, obsolete
enpr: dəzärt'
ipa: /dəˈzɑɹt/
note: Appalachians, obsolete
rhymes: -ɛzə(ɹ)t
Forms: form: deserts
Etymology: From Middle English desert (“wilderness”), from Old French desert, from Latin dēsertum, past participle of dēserō (“to abandon”). Generally displaced native Old English wēsten.
Senses: examples: text: And ye poore Pilgrimes, that vvith reſtleſſe toyle
 VVearie your ſelues in vvandring deſert vvayes […]
ref: 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard,Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier. […], London: […] [Thomas Orwin] for William Ponsonby, […], →OCLC, signature [C4], recto:
text: Not thus the land appear'd in ages past,
 A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.
ref: 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
glosses: A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
examples: text: It is wholly out of the power of language to convey any idea of the blissful enjoyment of obtaining water, after an almost total want of it, during eight and forty hours, in the scorching regions of an Arabian desert, in the month of July.
ref: 1805 December, Julius Griffiths, “A Journey across the Desert”, in The Monthly Mirror, page 362:
text: The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.
ref: 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
glosses: A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
In particular, a barren, arid area of land which is hot, with sandy, rocky, or parched ground.
examples: text: He declared that the country was an intellectual desert; that he was famishing for spiritual aliment, and for discourse on matters beyond mere nuggets, prospectings, and the price of gold.
ref: 1858, William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria, page 54:
text: By contrast, the WR route is an economic desert between Newbury and Taunton.
ref: 1964 March, “News and Comment: Which way to the West?”, in Modern Railways, page 147:
text: So the question that is commonly asked is, why put a media incubator in a media desert and have it managed by a civil servant?
ref: 2006, Philip N. Cooke, Creative Industries in Wales: Potential and Pitfalls, page 34:
glosses: Any barren place or situation.
Derived terms: Asian desert warbler
Central Desert
Chinese desert cat
concrete desert
daughter of the desert
deagle
desert bean
desert blue
desert boot
desert candle
desert cat
desert chicory
desert cooler
desert cottontail
desert dandelion
desert date
desert dolly
desert fox
desert fruit cake
desertful
desert glue
desert hare
desert holly
desertic
deserticole
deserticolous
desertification
desertify
desert ironwood
desert island
desert kite
desert kit fox
desertland
desert lavender
desertlike
desert lily
desert locust
desert lynx
desert marigold
desert mole rat
desert monitor
desert mouse
desert oak
desert onion
desertophile
desert pavement
desert pea
desert pear
desert physa
desert raisin
desert rat
desert rheumatism
desert rock
desert rose
desert sand
desertscape
desert soil
desert sore
desert tea
desert-thorn
desert tomato
desert tortoise
desert truffle
desert varnish
desertward
desertwards
desert whale
desert wheatear
desert willow
desertworthy
deserty
flowering desert
food desert
medical desert
Mojave Desert
nondesert
Nubian Desert
paleodesert
Peruvian desert fox
polar desert
preach in the desert
Sahara Desert
Sechura desert fox
semi-desert
semidesert
ship of the desert
son of the desert
Sturt's desert pea
sub-desert
subdesert
transdesert