Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In a desolate manner; as one forsaken, abandoned, or overwhelmed with ruin or grief.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb In a desolate manner.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In a desolate manner

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in grief-stricken loneliness; without comforting circumstances or prospects

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Dura-Europos, too, was situated in a far-flung, desolately picturesque spot: at the edge of the Syrian desert near Iraq on a long-abandoned plateau abutting the Euphrates.

    Rare Objects, Rarer Practices Melik Kaylan 2011

  • One of her most desolately revealing portraits shows Cecil Beaton, the grand master, standing stiffly posed among the urns and lilies in his spacious conservatory in Wiltshire; formal, ill at ease, wearing a hat.

    Portraits of the artists 2011

  • I've watched poor black taxi drivers and domestics slog desolately through their day in Caribbean island resorts, knowing that for them the standard of living enjoyed by the tourists they serve will never be in reach.

    Karen Talavera: How Wide Is Your Lens? Karen Talavera 2011

  • Even did she ride to anchor, desolately lonely, in the Bay of a Thousand Ships.

    CHAPTER XXIV 2010

  • I've watched poor black taxi drivers and domestics slog desolately through their day in Caribbean island resorts, knowing that for them the standard of living enjoyed by the tourists they serve will never be in reach.

    Karen Talavera: How Wide Is Your Lens? Karen Talavera 2011

  • The apartment echoed desolately without Thomas and the children; she stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and looked at the mess they had left behind them from breakfast, without really seeing it.

    Red Wolf Liza Marklund 2010

  • Less painful moments wherein I feel like my heart is being wrenched out of my chest as I stare desolately at the page with the text blurring as my eyes well up.

    Archive 2010-06-01 Ah Yuan // wingstodust 2010

  • Less painful moments wherein I feel like my heart is being wrenched out of my chest as I stare desolately at the page with the text blurring as my eyes well up.

    Review: Boys Without Names by Kashmira Sheth Ah Yuan // wingstodust 2010

  • It's amazing that Mr. Hickam describes NASA engineers desolately counting their days until retirement, when those engineers could have chosen to go private and be part of the exciting projects that are happening in the real world of space exploration.

    Time to Change the Guard for U.S. Space Exploration? 2010

  • The apartment echoed desolately without Thomas and the children; she stopped in the doorway to the kitchen and looked at the mess they had left behind them from breakfast, without really seeing it.

    Red Wolf Liza Marklund 2010

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