ˌdesəˈlāshən also -ezə- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Late Latin desolation-, desolatio, from desolatus + Latin -ion-, -io -ion
1. : the action of desolating
Europe was living in a state of anarchy … until it erupted into the pitiful desolation and slaughter of World War I — D.F.Fleming
2.
a. : the condition of being desolated : a state of ruin, dilapidation, devastation
the Indians fled into the Great Smoky mountains, leaving ruin and desolation behind — American Guide Series: North Carolina
b. : a condition of shocking abandonment to confusion and disintegration or of forbidding natural barrenness and bleakness
an appearance of desolation … dead cypress masts rise above thick gray underbrush; in others the boggy surface is littered with charred logs and stumps — American Guide Series: North Carolina
little to distract the eye from the awful surrounding dreariness and desolation except the bleaching skeletons of horses — American Guide Series: Arizona
3.
a. : gloomy lifeless barren wasteland
bleak, gray, God-forsaken, the empty desolation stretched on every hand — O.E.Rölvaag
b. : a stark area repellent by reason of wild empty barrenness
nothing was visible but an opaque mist veiling an immense, sun-brown desolation — James Hilton
c. : an area seeming empty and often repellent because of lacking the presence of man or evidence of his handiwork
the unconquerable desolation of the Yorkshire moors — Ellen Glasgow
4.
a. : disconsolate sorrow from bereavement, abandonment, or loss
he put his trembling hands to his head and gave a ringing scream, the cry of desolation — George Eliot
b. : dejection : dreary sadness
thoughts that climb from desolation toward the genial prime — William Wordsworth