DESERTED • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Deserted

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/dɪzˈərtɪd/ Listen

verb

Desert v. t. (past & past part. deserted; pres. part. deserting)

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. "The deserted fortress."

(Mil.) 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.

Desert v. i. To abandon a service without leave; to quit military service without permission, before the expiration of one's term; to abscond. "The soldiers... deserted in numbers."

Synonyms: To abandon; forsake; leave; relinquish; renounce; quit; depart from; abdicate. See Abandon.

adjective

deserted adj.

Having no residents; as, deserted villages.

Synonyms: uninhabited.

No longer used by people.

Synonyms: abandoned, derelict.

Remote from civilization; as, the victim was lured to a deserted spot.

Being left by another without support or assistance; left in the lurch; of people; as, deserted wives and children. Note: In this sense, the label implies some level of dependence of the person(s) being deserted on those deserting them.

See images of 'Deserted'

Etymology of 'Deserted'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Deserted" Quotes from Famous Books

... got off into the stream. There sat the deserted dog on his tail, howling most dismally as the boats drew up ...

— The Girls of Central High in Camp - The Old Professor's Secret • Gertrude W. Morrison

... Acre,"—a school for vicious habits, where depravity was universal; where professional beggars were fitted with all the appliances of imposture; where there was an agency for the hire of children to be carried about by forlorn widows and deserted wives, to move the compassion of street-giving benevolence; where young pickpockets were trained in the art and mystery which was to conduct them in due course to an expensive voyage for the good of ...

— Architects of Fate - or, Steps to Success and Power • Orison Swett Marden

... at last left her, and she stole downstairs into the sitting-room in the morning, it was rather early. Nobody was stirring about the house but herself. It seemed deserted; the old sitting-room looked empty and forlorn the stillness was oppressive. Ellen could not bear it. Softly opening the glass door, she went out upon the lawn, where everything was sparkling in the early freshness of the summer morning. How could it look so pleasant ...

— The Wide, Wide World • Elizabeth Wetherell

... Dirk's habitation with anxious eyes long before he drew near. He half expected to see the fisherman's tall figure pacing up and down the sand, beating his breast and groaning with despair, perhaps; but instead, the sands were deserted. Noll came opposite the miserable dwelling, and paused a few seconds before rapping, waiting to hear the sick child's low wail. He heard only a confused, unintelligible ...

— Culm Rock - The Story of a Year: What it Brought and What it Taught • Glance Gaylord

... of the horn of white hunter or of chance traveler, and the spot had been deserted on the instant, its peopling vanished beyond discovery. But there was no horn of hunter, no sound even of tinkling cow-bell, no voice of youth in song or conversation. Only the sound of the great drum, the drum made years ago and hidden in a spot known to few, spoke out its sullen summons, ...

— The Law of the Land • Emerson Hough

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