desolate
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/icons/point.icon ALONE, SOLITARY, LONELY, LONESOME, LONE, FORLORN, DESOLATE mean isolated from others.
ALONE stresses the objective fact of being by oneself with slighter notion of emotional involvement than most of the remaining terms.
e.g. everyone needs to be alone sometimes
SOLITARY may indicate isolation as a chosen course but more often it suggests sadness and a sense of loss.
e.g. glorying in the calm of her solitary life
e.g. left solitary by the death of his wife
LONELY adds to SOLITARY a suggestion of longing for companionship.
e.g. felt lonely and forsaken
LONESOME heightens the suggestion of sadness and poignancy.
e.g. an only child often leads a lonesome life
LONE may replace LONELY or LONESOME but typically is as objective as ALONE.
e.g. a lone robin pecking at the lawn
FORLORN stresses dejection, woe, and listlessness at separation from one held dear.
e.g. a forlorn lost child
DESOLATE implies inconsolable grief at loss or bereavement.
e.g. desolate after her brother's death
/icons/point.icon DISMAL, DREARY, BLEAK, GLOOMY, CHEERLESS, DESOLATE mean devoid of cheer or comfort.
DISMAL indicates extreme and utterly depressing gloominess.
e.g. dismal weather
DREARY, often interchangeable with dismal, emphasizes discouragement resulting from sustained dullness or futility.
e.g. a dreary job
BLEAK suggests chill, dull, and barren characteristics that utterly dishearten.
e.g. the bleak years of the depression
GLOOMY often suggests lack of hope or promise.
e.g. gloomy war news
CHEERLESS stresses absence of anything cheering.
e.g. a drab and cheerless office
DESOLATE adds an element of utter remoteness or lack of human contact to any already disheartening aspect.
e.g. a desolate outpost
adjective |ˈdesələt|
(of a place) deserted of people and in a state of bleak and dismal emptiness:
〈場所などが〉人気（ひとけ）のない; 荒れ果てた; 活気のない
e.g. a desolate moor.
feeling or showing misery, unhappiness, or loneliness:
〈人が〉孤独な, 寂しい, わびしい, 心細い; 惨めな; 〈事が〉陰鬱な, 寂しい
e.g. I suddenly felt desolate and bereft.
verb |ˈdesəˌlāt| with object
make (a place) bleakly and depressingly empty or bare:
〈場所〉を荒廃させる, 寂しくさせる (!しばしば受け身で)
e.g. the droughts that desolated the dry plains.
(usually be desolated) make (someone) feel utterly wretched and unhappy:
〖通例be ～d〗 〈人が〉孤独を感じる, 寂しく思う, 心細くなる
e.g. he was desolated by the deaths of his treasured friends.
DERIVATIVES
desolately |ˈdesələtlē| adverb
desolateness |-litnis| noun
desolator |-ˌlātər| noun
ORIGIN
late Middle English: from Latin desolatus ‘abandoned’, past participle of desolare, from de- ‘thoroughly’ + solus ‘alone’.