desert

1 of 4

noun (1)

des·​ert ˈde-zərt 

1

: arid land with usually sparse vegetation

especially : such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of sporadic rainfall annually

2

: an area of water apparently devoid of life

3

: a desolate or forbidding area

lost in a desert of doubt

4

archaic : a wild uninhabited and uncultivated tract

desertic

de-ˈzər-tik 

adjective

desertlike

ˈde-zərt-ˌlīk 

adjective

desert

2 of 4

adjective

des·​ert ˈde-zərt 

1

: desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied

a desert island

2

: of or relating to a desert (see desert entry 1)

3

archaic : forsaken

desert

3 of 4

verb

de·​sert di-ˈzərt 

deserted; deserting; deserts

transitive verb

1

: to withdraw from or leave usually without intent to return

desert a town

2

a

: to leave in the lurch

desert a friend in trouble

b

: to abandon (military service) without leave

intransitive verb

: to quit one's post, allegiance, or service without leave or justification

especially : to abandon military duty without leave and without intent to return

desert

4 of 4

noun (2)

de·​sert di-ˈzərt 

1

: deserved reward or punishment

—usually used in plural

got their just deserts

2

: the quality or fact of meriting reward or punishment

3

: excellence, worth

Did you know?

Where does the phrase just deserts come from?

Why do we say that someone has gotten their just deserts? Does this turn of phrase have anything to do with dessert (“a sweet food eaten at the end of a meal”) or desert (“a dry land with few plants and little rainfall”)? In fact, the phrase employs neither of these words. Instead, it uses a completely unrelated word that happens to be pronounced like the word for sweets and spelled like the one for a dry place: desert, meaning “reward or punishment deserved or earned by one’s qualities or acts.” This little-used noun is, as you might have guessed, related to the English verb deserve. It has nothing to do with arid, dry land, or with cookies and ice cream.

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• barren
• desolation
• heath
• no-man's-land
• waste
• wasteland

Verb

• defect (from)
• rat (on)

Noun (2)

• castigation
• chastisement
• comeuppance
• correction
• discipline
• nemesis
• penalty
• punishment
• wrath

Choose the Right Synonym for desert

abandon, desert, forsake mean to leave without intending to return.

abandon suggests that the thing or person left may be helpless without protection.

abandoned children

desert implies that the object left may be weakened but not destroyed by one's absence.

a deserted town

forsake suggests an action more likely to bring impoverishment or bereavement to that which is forsaken than its exposure to physical dangers.

a forsaken lover

Examples of desert in a Sentence

Noun (1)

Satellite images taken this year and 20 years ago show that the desert is in retreat thanks to a resurgence of trees. —Andy Coghlan, New Scientist, 14-20 Oct. 2006

The coastal plain is a desert in terms of precipitation—less than six inches fall annually—but what falls as snow stays to be later distributed by the wind. —John Hildebrand, Harper's, November 2003

The house finch, a songbird native to the Western desert, has proved to be highly adaptable, having rapidly colonized the Eastern states after its release on Long Island in the early 1940's. —Jane E. Brody, New York Times, 1 Jan. 2002

we were lost in the desert for days without food

Adjective

While my very American mother swabbed the dishes, Dad lingered at the dinner table, recreating in visceral detail the taste of mint in a Bedouin teacup under a desert sky, or the golden plumage of his father's saluki dogs, or the filigreed robes of the young king at the camel races. —Diana Abu-Jaber, Vogue, May 2007

… the place in the Texas Panhandle where Highway 66 rolled down off the land of farms and ranches into the beginnings of the desert grassland and red-rock country that dominated New Mexico. —Susan Croce Kelly, Route 66, 1988

Verb

Boulet saw his longtime partner desert him in the midst of the storm, then had his wife and daughter skip town in its aftermath. —Mike Flaherty, TV Guide, 10-16 Sept. 2007

Left alone for a moment, he feels mournful, bereft—and then panicky, when he thinks he has been deserted again. —Richard Corliss, Time, 7 Mar. 2005

But now the building seemed deserted at two in the afternoon, and I soon learned that the paper, incredibly, was forced to advertise for applicants to the staff. —Arthur Miller, Timebends, 1987

The inhabitants had deserted the town.

She had been married for just over a year when her husband deserted her.

He was deserted by his friends and family.

Noun (2)

the robbers got their just deserts

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Click here to see more photos of the one-of-a-kind homes in the Utah desert. —Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 19 Mar. 2025

In addition, strong winds over desert areas could result in briefly lowered visibilities to well under a mile at times in blowing dust or blowing sand. —Ca Weather Bot, Sacramento Bee, 18 Mar. 2025

Adjective

It should be kept in mind that the territory the cession of which is provided for is largely desert and very sparsely inhabited. —Anonymous, Foreign Affairs, 8 Oct. 2011

The ban covers the non-desert regions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties and most of Orange County and prohibits outdoor and residential burning of wood and manufactured logs. —Christian Martinez, Los Angeles Times, 27 Nov. 2021

Verb

His paintings capture the rhythms of daily life—women draped in flowing tobes set against stark, open backdrops of the sky or desert in some, bustling market stalls in others. —Omnia Saed, ARTnews.com, 17 Mar. 2025

Except for an elderly gentleman walking his dog some distance away, both taking mincing steps, the beach and the boardwalk are deserted. —Joyce Carol Oates, The New Yorker, 16 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English, "barren expanse of land (either wooded or arid), wasteland," borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin dēserta "unfrequented places, wilderness," noun derivative from neuter plural (feminine singular in Late Latin) of dēsertus "empty of people, uninhabited" — more at desert entry 2

Adjective

Middle English desert, deserte "barren, uninhabited, deserted, forsaken," borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French, borrowed from Latin dēsertus "empty of people, uninhabited," from past participle of dēserere "to part company with, abandon, leave uninhabited" — more at desert entry 3

Verb

borrowed from French déserter, going back to Old French, "to devastate, make uninhabited, abandon, leave," borrowed from Late Latin dēsertāre "to leave, abandon," frequentative of Latin dēserere "to part company with, abandon, leave uninhabited, leave in the lurch," from dē- de- + serere "to link together, join in a series" — more at series

Note: Note that Dictionnaire du Moyen Français divides deserter into two lemmas, assigning the senses "devastate, make uninhabited" to a derivative of desert "barren, uninhabited" (see desert entry 2) and the senses "abandon, leave" to a loan from Late Latin dēsertāre.

Noun (2)

Middle English desert, dissert "fact of deserving reward or punishment, worthiness, merit," borrowed from Anglo-French desert, deserte, desserte "merit, reward, fact of deserving reward or punishment, wrongful conduct, reason, cause" (also continental Old & Middle French), derivative of deservir "to deserve, merit, earn, be entitled to" — more at deserve

Note: The derivation of Old French desert from deservir has been variously explained. Trésor de la Langue Française describes desserte as formed from the present tense base (i.e., the base lacking -v-) of desservir ("Déverbal, formé sur le radical du présent de l'indicative de desservir"). P. Ruelle points in a different direction, judging both the Old French noun deserte and the adjective desert as a variant of the past participle deservi, descending from *desérvitum, a presumed by-form of classical dēservītum (see his "Notes sur le lexique des Isopets," Romania, vol. 101, no. 401 [1980], pp. 77-78).

First Known Use

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adjective

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb

1603, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun (2)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Phrases Containing desert

• desert island
• desert locust
• desert soil
• desert tortoise
• desert varnish
• food desert

Kids Definition

desert

1 of 4 noun

des·​ert ˈdez-ərt 

: dry land with few plants and little rainfall

desertlike

-ˌlīk 

adjective

desert

2 of 4 adjective

des·​ert ˈdez-ərt 

: of, relating to, or resembling a desert

especially : being barren and without life

a desert island

desert

3 of 4 noun

de·​sert di-ˈzərt 

1

: worthiness of reward or punishment

rewarded according to their deserts

2

: a deserved reward or punishment

got your just deserts

desert

4 of 4 verb

de·​sert di-ˈzərt 

1

: to withdraw from : leave

desert a town

2

: to leave someone or something one should stay with

deserted a friend in trouble

3

: to fail one in time of need

my courage deserted me

4

: to quit one's post without permission especially with the intention of remaining away permanently

deserter noun

desertion

di-ˈzər-shən

noun

Etymology

Noun

Middle English desert "barren land," from early French desert (same meaning), derived from Latin deserere "to desert, abandon," from de- "from, away" and serere "to join together"

Noun

Middle English deserte "quality of being worthy of a reward or punishment," from early French desert (same meaning), from deservir "to deserve," from Latin deservire "to devote oneself to"

Verb

from French déserter "to desert, abandon," from Latin desertare (same meaning), derived from earlier deserere "to desert, abandon" — related to desert entry 1