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“desert”
desert (di ZURT)
1. To leave (a person, place, etc.) without intending to return; especially, in violation of a duty, promise, or the like: "He deserted his wife."
2. With reference to military personnel, to leave or run away from (service, duty, etc.) with the intention of never returning.
3. To fail (someone) at a time of need: "He felt that all of his friends had deserted him."
4. Etymology: from Old French deserter, "leave"; literally. "to undo" or "to sever a connection"; from Late Latin desertare, frequently of Latin deserere, "to abandon" from de-, "undo" plus serere, "to join".
2. With reference to military personnel, to leave or run away from (service, duty, etc.) with the intention of never returning.
3. To fail (someone) at a time of need: "He felt that all of his friends had deserted him."
4. Etymology: from Old French deserter, "leave"; literally. "to undo" or "to sever a connection"; from Late Latin desertare, frequently of Latin deserere, "to abandon" from de-, "undo" plus serere, "to join".
This entry is located in the following unit:
seri-, ser-
(page 1)
desert (DEZ zuhrt)
1. An area of land, usually in very hot climates, that consists only of sand, gravel, or rock with little or no vegetation, no permanent bodies of water, and erratic rainfall.
2. a place or situation that is devoid of some desirable thing or overwhelmed by an undesirable thing: "They had to live in a town with cultural desert."
3. Etymology: from Old French desert, from Late Latin desertum; literally, "a thing abandoned", a noun use of the neuter past participle of Latin deserere, "to forsake".
2. a place or situation that is devoid of some desirable thing or overwhelmed by an undesirable thing: "They had to live in a town with cultural desert."
3. Etymology: from Old French desert, from Late Latin desertum; literally, "a thing abandoned", a noun use of the neuter past participle of Latin deserere, "to forsake".
This entry is located in the following unit:
seri-, ser-
(page 1)
desert (diz URT), deserts (diz URTS)
1. Suitable rewards or punishments: "He will get his just deserts when he is punished for keeping his daughter locked away as his sex slave."
2. Etymology: from about 1300, borrowed from Old French deserte, past participle of deservir, "be worthy to have"; from Latin deservire, "to serve well, to devote oneself to".
2. Etymology: from about 1300, borrowed from Old French deserte, past participle of deservir, "be worthy to have"; from Latin deservire, "to serve well, to devote oneself to".
This entry is located in the following unit:
seri-, ser-
(page 2)
desert, desert
The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words of homographs and heteronyms
(page 1)
desert, desert, deserts, dessert
desert (di ZURT) (verb)
To leave, to forsake, or to abandon; AWOL (Absent Without Leave): A person can desert from the military service during war just once and that would be the final act.
If their nest is disturbed, birds will often desert it.
desert (DEZ urt) (noun)
A dry, barren region: A person can go walking out into the desert without water just once because he or she probably would not survive or do it again.
deserts (di ZURTS) (noun)
That which is deserved or a punishment that someone deserves: The people in the community all wanted to see the criminal receive his just deserts.
dessert (di ZURT) (noun)
Sweet food served at the end of a meal: Elvira and Lorene had ice cream and apple pie for their dessert.
While Marta was having her dessert in the restaurant, she was wishing that she could desert her broken down car right there in the desert.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group D; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. +
(page 3)
deserticole (verb), deserticoles; deserticoled; deserticoling: desert
Living primarily on open ground in an arid or desert region.
This entry is located in the following unit:
-cola, -colas; -cole; -colent; -colid; -coline; -colous
(page 7)
xerocole (verb), xerocoles; xerocoled; xerocoling: desert
1. Adapting to living in the desert: "The main challenges to xerocoling is that animals must be able to survive with minimal amounts of water and be able to endure extreme heat."
2. Etymology: from Greek xeros, "dry"; and Latin colere,"to inhabit" or "to live".
"Some creatures are so adept at xerocoling moisture, or obtaining it from food, that it isn't necessary for them to drink anything."
2. Moving around in the desert: "In order to escape the desert heat, many creatures xerocole mostly at dawn and at night."2. Etymology: from Greek xeros, "dry"; and Latin colere,"to inhabit" or "to live".
This entry is located in the following unit:
-cola, -colas; -cole; -colent; -colid; -coline; -colous
(page 26)
Units related to:
“desert”
(Greek: lonely, solitary; hermit; desert)
(Latin: waste, lay waste completely; from vastare, "to make empty, to lay waste", from vastus, "empty, waste, desert")
Word Entries containing the term:
“desert”
aqueous desert
An area of the sea floor or the bed of a lake more or less devoid of macroscopic organisms, typically with unstable sediment.
This entry is located in the following unit:
aqua-, aquatic-, aqui-, aqu-, -aquatically, aque-, -aqueous
(page 5)
arboreous desert
An area of sparsely scattered trees with little or no vegetation between; a desert forest.
This entry is located in the following unit:
arbor-, arbori-
(page 1)
arctic desert, polar desert
An area, especially in the polar regions, having little or no vegetation due to extremely cold temperatures.
This entry is located in the following unit:
arcto-, arct- +
(page 1)
An excessive lack of rain and soils restrict the growth of plants: "Desert habitats have been created because they don't have the means to sustain much in the way of resources for biodiversity."
"It is estimated that approximately one-third of the Earth's land areas consist of desert habitats."
"The earth's largest desert habitat is the African Sahara."
This entry is located in the following unit:
Habitats for the Living
(page 1)
A type of earth that develops in arid, or dry, climates: Desert soils develop under sparse shrub vegetation in warm to cool arid climates with a light-colored surface soil usually underlain by calcareous material and a hardpan layer.
Desert soil is a soil variety typically found in arid climates, usually with little leaching and minimal humus content.
Desert soil is referred to as an "aridisol" in the nomenclature of the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.
orographic desert
A rain shadow desert on the leeward side of a mountain rnge.
This entry is located in the following unit:
grapho-, graph-, -graph, -graphy, -grapher, -graphia
(page 61)
Sahara desert
Sahara is Arabic for "desert".
This entry is located in the following unit:
Pleonasms or Tautological Redundancies
(page 20)
The Desert
A. Starker Leopold and The Editors of LIFE; Time Inc.; New York; 1962.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Bibliography of Sources Regarding Habitat and Dwelling Environments
(page 2)
Thursday: How one feels while crossing a desert on a hot day.
Word Entries at Get Words:
“desert”
desert
A geographical region which has little or no vegetation and which averages less than ten inches of precipitation or rain during the year.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Geography Terms +
(page 5)