Library / English Dictionary

DESERT

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(usually plural) a person's deservingness of or entitlement to reward or punishment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("desert" is a kind of...):

deservingness; merit; meritoriousness (the quality of being deserving (e.g., deserving assistance))

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Arid land with little or no vegetation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("desert" is a kind of...):

biome (a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate)

parcel; parcel of land; piece of ground; piece of land; tract (an extended area of land)

Meronyms (parts of "desert"):

oasis (a fertile tract in a desert (where the water table approaches the surface))

Instance hyponyms:

Kizil Kum; Kyzyl Kum; Qizil Qum (a desert in Uzbekistan to the southeast of the Aral Sea)

Libyan Desert (the northeastern part of the Sahara Desert in Libya and Egypt and Sudan)

Mohave; Mohave Desert; Mojave; Mojave Desert (a desert area in southern California and western Arizona)

Namib Desert (a desert in Namibia extending along the coast between the high plateau and the Atlantic Ocean)

An Nafud; An Nefud; Nafud; Nefud (a desert in northern Saudi Arabia that is noted for its red sand and violent winds)

Negev; Negev Desert (a desert in southern Israel)

Nubian Desert (an arid sandstone plateau in northeastern Sudan between the Nile and the Red Sea)

Painted Desert (a desert on a high plateau in northeastern Arizona)

Patagonian Desert (a semiarid region in southern South America)

Ar Rimsal; Dahna; Great Sandy Desert; Rub al-Khali (a desert in southern Saudi Arabia)

Sahara; Sahara Desert (the world's largest desert (3,500,000 square miles) in northern Africa)

Simpson Desert (a desert region of central Australia)

Sinai; Sinai Desert (a desert on the Sinai Peninsula in northeastern Egypt)

Sonoran Desert (a desert in southwestern Arizona)

Syrian Desert (a desert of northern Arabia occupying western Iraq, southern Syria, eastern Jordan, and northern Saudi Arabia)

Taklamakan Desert; Taklimakan Desert (a desert in western China)

Great Indian Desert; Thar Desert (a desert to the east of the Indus River in northwestern India and southeastern Pakistan)

Arabian Desert; Great Arabian Desert (a desert on the Arabian Peninsula in southwestern Asia)

Arabian Desert; Eastern Desert (a desert in Egypt between the Nile River and the Red Sea)

Atacama Desert (a desert in western Chile that extends roughly 600 miles south from the Peruvian border; one of the driest areas in the world, but rich in nitrate and copper deposits)

Australian Desert; Great Australian Desert (general name given to all desert areas in Australia)

Black Rock Desert (a desert in northwestern Nevada)

Chihuahuan Desert (a desert in western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico)

Colorado Desert (an arid region of southeastern California)

Dasht-e-Kavir; Great Salt Desert; Kavir Desert (a salt desert in north central Iran)

Dasht-e-Lut; Lut Desert (a desert in eastern Iran)

Death Valley (a desert area that is part of the Mojave Desert in eastern California and southwestern Nevada; contains the lowest point in North America)

Gibson Desert (a desert area in western Australia)

Gila Desert (a desert area in southern Arizona)

Gobi; Gobi Desert (a desert in central China)

Great Sandy Desert (a desert region in northwestern Australia to the north of the Gibson Desert)

Great Victoria Desert (a desert region in south central Australia to the north of the Nullarbor Plain)

Kalahari; Kalahari Desert (a desert in southwestern Africa - largely Botswana)

Kara Kum; Qara Qum; Turkestan Desert (a desert in Turkmenistan to the south of the Aral Sea)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch

Example:

The mother deserted her children

Synonyms:

abandon; desert; desolate; forsake

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "desert" is one way to...):

leave (go and leave behind, either intentionally or by neglect or forgetfulness)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "desert"):

expose (abandon by leaving out in the open air)

walk out (leave suddenly, often as an expression of disapproval)

ditch (forsake)

maroon; strand (leave stranded or isolated with little hope of rescue)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot desert Sue

Derivation:

deserter (a person who abandons their duty (as on a military post))

deserter (a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.)

desertion (withdrawing support or help despite allegiance or responsibility)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Leave behind

Example:

the students deserted the campus after the end of exam period

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Hypernyms (to "desert" is one way to...):

go away; go forth; leave (go away from a place)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army

Example:

If soldiers deserted Hitler's army, they were shot

Synonyms:

defect; desert

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "desert" is one way to...):

flee; fly; take flight (run away quickly)

"Desert" entails doing...:

dissent; protest; resist (express opposition through action or words)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "desert"):

rat (desert one's party or group of friends, for example, for one's personal advantage)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

deserter (a person who abandons their duty (as on a military post))

deserter (a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.)

desertion (the act of giving something up)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Sand dunes, whether in deserts, on river bottoms or sea beds, rarely occur in isolation and instead usually appear in large groups, forming striking patterns known as dune fields or corridors.

(Sand dunes can ‘communicate’ with each other, University of Cambridge)

Such a planet could be quite hospitable if located at the right distance from its two stars, and wouldn't necessarily even have deserts.

(Earth-Sized 'Tatooine' Planets Could Be Habitable, NASA)

It is a remote desert town with a population of around fifty people.

(Millions don't turn up to 'storm' US airbase for extraterrestrial evidence, Wikinews)

A scientist who found fame recovering a meteorite that crashed into Russia in 2013 has found 13 kilograms of meteorite-like material in Iran’s Lut desert.

(Huge Haul of Extraterrestrial Material Recovered from Iranian Desert, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The deposits serve as a watermark created by climate fluctuations as the Martian environment transitioned from a wetter one to the freezing desert it is today.

(NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds an Ancient Oasis on Mars, NASA)

Outside the street was absolutely deserted.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This allele, which encodes desert hedgehog protein, is involved in the regulation of both male gonadal differentiation and perineurial development.

(DHH wt Allele, NCI Thesaurus)

Desert hedgehog protein (396 aa, ~344 kDa) is encoded by the human DHH gene.

(Desert Hedgehog Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

“He only comes there to see me, apparently, for the place is deserted up to the very hour he names.”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)