desolation Definition

desolate
adj

1. Said of a place: deserted, barren and lonely.

Thesaurus: deserted, uninhabited, depopulated; laid waste, bereft, barren.
2. Said of a person: very sad; in despair.

Thesaurus: wretched, forlorn, despondent, disheartened, hopeless, inconsolable, depressed, melancholy; Antonym: cheerful.
3. Lacking pleasure or comfort.

Example: a desolate life
4. Lonely; alone.

Thesaurus: lonely, solitary, isolated, abandoned, forsaken.

verb desolated, desolating

1. To overwhelm someone with sadness or grief.
2. To make somewhere deserted or barren; to lay waste (an area).

Derivative: desolated
adj

Derivative: desolately
adverb

Derivative: desolation
noun

The state of being made barren or laid waste
Thesaurus: barrenness, bareness, devastation, ruin, ravages, dissolution, demolition, annihilation, extinction, desert, waste.

noun

The state of overwhelming sadness or grief
Thesaurus: hopelessness, distress, dejection, despondency, despair, sadness, sorrow, wretchedness, gloom, misery, loneliness, anguish, woe.

Derivative: desolateness
noun

Etymology: 14c: from Latin desolare, desolatum to forsake.