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Definitions

desolate

[des-uh-lit, des-uh-leyt] / ˈdΙ›s Ι™ lΙͺt, ˈdΙ›s Ι™ΛŒleΙͺt /




Example Sentences

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As we climbed the winding road to Bédar, we emerged into a charred and desolate landscape.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

The delicate pitter-patter of a drum’s cymbal is the only sound to break through the thick brick wall of the obscure performance venue, Sun Space, and reach the wide, desolate Sunland Boulevard.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026

Although stretches of the opposite riverbank appeared "desolate", he said, "it's a lot more developed than I thought".

From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026

PHOENIX—On a desolate stretch of land dotted with cactuses some 30 minutes north of Phoenix, more than 30 cranes tower over a construction site 2½ times the size of New York City’s Central Park.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

Roz stood on a rocky outcrop and scanned the desolate landscape.

From "The Wild Robot Protects" by Peter Brown

He visits Barbara's soup kitchen shelter and proves with an open checkbook that he can bribe the poor and buy the Army, which desolates Barbara.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sudden death of Leontes' young son desolates him.

From Time Magazine Archive

But your misrepresentation which pained me most, in fact desolates me to the extent that I am unfit for work, is your statement that I weigh 200 Ib.

From Time Magazine Archive

"You at least do not hate me," she says, with a faint, sobbing cadence in her voice, that desolates, but sweetens it.

From Portia or By Passions Rocked by Duchess

"Oh, of course, of course, poor old thing," says she, unable this time, however, to hide the quaver that desolates her voice.

From April's Lady A Novel by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

Hospital director Dr Muhammad Abu Salima has called on the WHO and the UN to help the medical teams and patients "leave this desolated place".

From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2023

At the same time, Wallerstein could offer a mild reassurance: "It would certainly not be great, but it is not necessarily the desolated moonscape that people sometimes imagine it would be."

From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2022

Even in the depths of the pandemic — even when the world locked down, leaving billions isolated and desolated — there were those who danced.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 16, 2021

Already desolated by the empty nest, Alice is also distraught about their dog, Maebelle, a tiny dachshund-Chihuahua mutt who escaped in Riverside Park.

From New York Times ● Aug. 18, 2020

Still—I was desolated when he climbed away and headed back west.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

When D’Amore isn’t speaking — and for most of those three minutes and 40 seconds, she is silent — her body language is desolating.

From Salon ● Sep. 1, 2019

“The simple way...to put an end to the savage and desolating war now waged by the slaveholders, is to strike down slavery itself, the primal cause of that war.”

From Textbooks ● Jan. 18, 2018

It sounds as if your mother is relatively young herself, so this is a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s which is even more desolating.

From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2015

It goes beyond documentary, drawing on a visionary stage vocabulary and creating individual stories that are both desolating and stirring.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 27, 2013

Once again I had the desolating sense of having all along ignored what was finest in him.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles




Vocabulary lists containing desolate


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