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• v  leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
• v  reduce in population
• v  cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
• s  providing no shelter or sustenance
  the desolate surface of the moon
• s  crushed by grief
  depressed and desolate of soul
  a low desolate wail

• Puffing as he escorts an American visitor up a few flights at city hall, down the street from the desolate embassy compound, he says, laughing, "I guess I'm better at climbing over .
• It was July 24, 1847 when Pioneer Brigham Young gazed down at the desolate Salt Lake Valley and declared: "This is the place.
• Born outside Paris in 1883, Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel (never called anything but Coco for "Little Pet") was orphaned at six and raised in the desolate province of Auvergne by two .

• abandon
• forsake
• desert
• depopulate
• lay waste to
• waste
• devastate
• ravage
• scourge
• bare
• barren
• bleak
• stark

News & Articles

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• The end of the world, turning on a comic axis
  NEW YORK (AP) — The Earth has been coming to an end with comic frequency. We've seen tsunamis sweep the oceans ("2012"), the world freeze over ("The Day After Tomorrow") and a rogue planet bear down ("Melancholia"). So many have been patrolling a desolate Earth — Will Smith ("After Earth"), Tom Cruise ("Oblivion"), a cute cleanup robot ("WALL-E") — that even the post-apocalyptic world is getting ...
  June 12, 2013 - Associated Press via Yahoo! News
• Wausau Earns 400K For Riverfront Project
  A desolate stretch of land lines the Wisconsin River in Wausau. However, plans to bring the land back to life came to the surface Tuesday, with help from a Brownfield Grant.
  June 12, 2013 - WSAW Wausau
• 'This Is the End': The end of the world, turning on a comic axis
  The Earth has been coming to an end with comic frequency. We've seen tsunamis sweep the oceans ("2012"), the world freeze over ("The Day After Tomorrow") and a rogue planet bear down ("Melancholia"). So many have been patrolling a desolate Earth — Will Smith ("After Earth"), Tom Cruise ("Oblivion"), a cute cleanup robot ("WALL-E") — that even the post-apocalyptic world is getting crowded.
  June 12, 2013 - Kingston Daily Freeman

Quotes

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• Arlene Phillips in Independent
  But Phillips, 64, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I personally would like to see him off the show. I would be desolate if he won."
• Jack Thompson in The Australian
  Deep in my heart, a desolate howl still echoes,a teary Thompson said. "We have lost a loved one."
• António Guterres in Harold Doan and Associates (press release)
  Hundreds of thousands of uprooted people in Chad depend on international support and a very fragile aid lifeline that must reach some of the most desolate and isolated parts of the country,Mr. Guterres said. "We are continuing to assist,...