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Definition of desert : 1. A deserted or forsaken region; a barren tract incapable of supporting population, as the vast sand plains of Asia and Africa are destitute and vegetation.
2. A tract, which may be capable of sustaining a population, but has been left unoccupied and uncultivated; a wilderness; a solitary place.
3. Of or pertaining to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island.
4. That which is deserved; the reward or the punishment justly due; claim to recompense, usually in a good sense; right to reward; merit.
5. To abandon ( the service) without leave; to forsake in violation of duty; to abscond from; as, to desert the army; to desert one's colors.
6. To abandon a service without leave; to quit military service without permission, before the expiration of one's term; to abscond.
7. To leave ( especially something which one should stay by and support); to leave in the lurch; to abandon; to forsake; - implying blame, except sometimes when used of localities; as, to desert a friend, a principle, a cause, one's country.

Synonyms:

get away, depart from, commission, slim down, die, depopulate, cast off, withdraw from, conscript, disappear, lay waste to, dissolve, abjure, call up, moonscape, abandon ship, empty, godforsaken, cashier, tergiversate, turn, backwater, vanish, redline, AWOL, cede, Birdsville Track, evaporate, bottomland, conscription, buy out, split, break away, no-man's-land, oasis, rich, forego, scourge, mirage, renegade, yawn, rut, desolation, not lift a finger, forswear, bore, devastate, stop, retire from, apostatize, throw over, go away, wasteland, approach, living death, splinter, 4-F, ravage, like rats deserting a sinking ship, trust, repudiate, keep, finish, recant, draw out, move on, that's your problem, cease, leave someone in the lurch, rat, fade away, waste, do little to help/solve etc., desolate, come away, wild

bleakness, emptiness, barrenness, abandonment, inhospitability, starkness, loneliness

forgo, renounce, capitulate, withdraw, release, disown, disclaim, waive, give up, shed

Great Australian, salt flats, Great Sandy, barrens, Great Victoria, sand dunes, Negev, Shamo, wastelands, Samnan, Kara Kum, Gobi, Persian, Death Valley, badlands, deserted region, sand, lava beds, Mojave, Painted, Patagonian, Tarim, Atakama, infertile region, Great Basin, Gidi, sahara, Arabian, abandoned country, alkali flats, Kalahari, arid region, wilderness, Sonoran, uncultivated expanse, Libyan, dust bowl, infertile area, barren plains, Sinkiang, Dahna

plateau, prairie, champaign, flatness, pampas, countryside, plain, moor, heath, steppe, mesa, tundra, veld, savanna

bleak, bare, forgotten, dismal, forsaken, forlorn, stark, inhospitable, barren, deserted, lonely, uninhabited, abandoned, dreary, miserable

abdicate, surrender, drop, quit, evacuate, forsake, vacate, relinquish, leave, resign, abandon, defect, discontinue

dispose, rid, cancel, jettison, let go, dismiss, vent, dispel, relegate, part with, reject, discard

desiccation, aridity, dryness, drought

betray, cross, backslide, abnegate, deny, retract, disavow

Usage examples:

• He'll no more desert us than we'd desert one another." - "The Come Back", Carolyn Wells.
• Hope came to them again- the hope of leaving that desert and coming to the sea. - "The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles", Padraic Colum.
• An' they did desert us. - "The Project Gutenberg Plays of John Galsworthy, Complete", John Galsworthy.