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  1. just deserts love

Definitions

Wiktionary

  1. n. idiomatic A punishment or reward that is considered to be what the recipient deserved.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an outcome in which virtue triumphs over vice (often ironically)

Examples

  • “The Moniteur Universel would have blazed out in a paean of triumph, declaring to the Continent that this loss of a ship of the line was clear proof that England was tottering to her fall like ancient Carthage; in a month or two's time presumably there would be another announcement to the effect that a traitorous servant of perfidious Albion had met his just deserts against a wall in Vincennes or Montjuich.”

    Flying Colours

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reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. comeuppance
  1. desert
  1. just
  1. lump
  1. right

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. frequently misspelled

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Comments

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  • milosrdenstvi point taken Aug 22, 2008

  • rolig I think you're overstating the situation, M. It's probably true that the only time one would say "deserts" is this sense is in the phrase "just deserts", but it is still used in formal writing. The phrase "in accordance with their deserts", for example, gets around 500 Google hits and "according to their deserts" gets over 10,000 hits. And Princeton Univ. Press just published a book called Moral Agents and Their Deserts. I'll grant you that the use of this word is limited, but it's not archaic, at least not yet. Aug 21, 2008

  • milosrdenstvi What I meant by archaism is that the use of 'deserts' in the English language is solely restricted to this construction. Anything else, one would you 'what he deserved' or something. Aug 21, 2008

  • rolig Milo is right about the meaning: one's desert (with the stress on the second syllable) is that which one deserves. The Oxford American defines "desert" (the third entry, after "desert, v. = to abandon" and "desert, n. = barren land") as "a person's worthiness or entitlement to reward or punishment." But it is not an archaism. Everyone still uses and understands the idiom, "to get one's just deserts," even if they get the spelling wrong and think it has something to do with death-by-chocolate vs. death by fruitcake. But no one thinks, "Oh, that's the sort of thing they said in Elizabethan England." Aug 21, 2008

  • milosrdenstvi But it's not cacti and cow skulls -- it's getting what you deserve. I suppose you might call it an archaicism for 'deservings'. Aug 21, 2008

  • trivet Phooey. I'd always thought that it was in the same family as eating crow, eating one's words, and other cake-eating, bread-buttering sayings. I had a whole mental picture of the various kinds of just desserts people would have to eat. Cacti and cattle skulls just can't compete. Sigh. Mar 20, 2007

  • oroboros I agree. I always thought it was desserts too. Recently found out differently and that was when I listed it and made my comment. Probably should have put an (!) rather than a mere (.) at the end of the comment! Mar 20, 2007

  • uselessness I never did understand this phrase. And I live in the desert. I always liked to imagine that it was just desserts, meaning you'll eat whatever dessert is proportionate to your deeds, according to blind justice. If you've been bad, getting your just desserts entails eating a load of... well, you know. Mar 18, 2007

  • oroboros NOT "just desserts". Mar 17, 2007

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‘just deserts’ has been looked up 3139 times, loved by 1 person, added to 7 lists, commented on 9 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.