DESOLATION


Meaning of DESOLATION in English

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

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.