desolate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Devoid of inhabitants; deserted: "streets which were usually so thronged now grown desolate” ( Daniel Defoe).
2. adj. Barren; lifeless: the rocky, desolate surface of the moon.
3. adj. Rendered unfit for habitation or use: the desolate cities of war-torn Europe.
4. adj. Dreary; dismal.
5. adj. Bereft of friends or hope; sad and forlorn. See Synonyms at sad.
6. v. To rid or deprive of inhabitants.
7. v. To lay waste; devastate: "Here we have no wars to desolate our fields” ( Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecoeur).
8. v. To forsake; abandon.
9. v. To make lonely, forlorn, or wretched.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To render lonely, as a place or region, by depopulation or devastation; make desert; lay waste; ruin; ravage.
2. To overwhelm with grief; afflict; make very sorry or weary: as, his heart was desolated by his loss; your misfortune desolates me; to be desolated by ennui.
3. Solitary; lonely; without companionship; forsaken.
4. Overwhelmed with grief; deprived of comfort; afflicted.
5. Destitute; lacking.
6. Destitute of inhabitants; uninhabited; lonely; abandoned: as, a desolate wilderness; desolate altars; desolate towers.
7. Lost to shame; abandoned; dissolute.
8. Synonyms Companionless.
9. Forlorn, cheerless, miserable, wretched.
10. Abandoned, unfrequented, lonely, waste, wild, barren, dreary.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
2. adj. Barren and lifeless.
3. adj. Made unfit for habitation or use.
4. adj. Dismal or dreary.
5. adj. Sad, forlorn and hopeless.
6. v. To deprive of inhabitants.
7. v. To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
8. v. To abandon or forsake something.
9. v. To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited; hence, gloomy
2. adj. Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed.
3. adj. Left alone; forsaken; lonely; comfortless.
4. adj. obsolete Lost to shame; dissolute.
5. adj. obsolete Destitute of; lacking in.
6. v. To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of inhabitants.
7. v. To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch
2. v. reduce in population
3. adj. providing no shelter or sustenance
4. adj. crushed by grief
5. v. cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly