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English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of desert in English

desert
noun [ C or U ]
uk
/ˈdez.ət/ us
/ˈdez.ɚt/
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A2
an area, often covered with sand or rocks, where there is very little rain and not many plants:
in the desert They were lost in the desert for nine days.
We had to cross a large area of arid, featureless desert.
the desert sun
 
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cultural, intellectual, etc. desert disapproving
a place that is considered to have no cultural, intellectual, etc. quality or interest:
This town is a cultural desert.
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SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Geography: deserts, prairies & wildernesses
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Grammar

Geographical places
We use the before the names of rivers. We usually write the without a capital letter. If we use the word river, we usually write it without a capital letter: the river Thames, the river Severn, the Yangtze river. …
desert
verb
uk
/dɪˈzɜːt/ us
/dɪˈzɝːt/

desert verb (RUN AWAY)

[ I or T ]
to leave the armed forces without permission and with no intention of returning:
Soldiers who deserted and were caught were shot.
desert from How many people desert from the army each year?
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Joining or leaving the army
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

desert verb (LEAVE BEHIND)

[ T ]
to leave someone without help or in a difficult situation and not come back:
desert someone for someone He deserted his wife and family for another woman.
[ T ]
If a quality deserts you, you suddenly and temporarily lose it:
All my confidence/courage deserted me when I walked into the exam.
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Departing
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(Definition of desert from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

desert | American Dictionary

desert
verb [ T ]
us
/dɪˈzɜrt/
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to leave someone or something without help or in a difficult situation:
Local people deserted the city as hordes of tourists arrived.
If you desert the armed forces, you leave without permission and with no intention of returning:
He denied that he had deserted his post.
desert
noun [ C/U ]
us
/ˈdez·ərt/
a large, dry area where there is very little rain and few plants:
[ U ] When you live in the desert, water is your most vital resource.
(Definition of desert from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of desert

desert
Or possibly fortitude is primarily shaped by genetics, rather than early environment, but that is even less plausible as grounds for just deserts.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
He takes the side that the desert base must be one for which the individual is responsible.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
This is problematic to the extent that one thinks that desert necessarily involves a ground for which the agent is morally responsible.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
But such organized resistance was rare, and once called up, few soldiers dodged conscription and even fewer deserted.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Moreover, measuring the extent of a person's desert of punishment requires addressing difficult epistemological questions about excusing and mitigating circumstances.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Determining whether the epistemological argument's assumptions about desert are in fact correct would take us far afield.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Ordinary citizens, as voters, would desert centrist parties and transfer their allegiance to the extremes.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Numerous farms and entire villages were deserted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and not one single market town was founded between 1350 and 1400.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
They sit on the least viable chunk of desert and scrub that exists.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
They are meant to reclaim place from the desert of non-place and, in the process, serve as monuments against forgetting.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Such accumulations are observed in certain desert environments on earth.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The second objection accepts the legitimacy of assessing desert by interpersonal comparisons, but says that the pragmatic theory is inaccurate even on its own terms.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The rule of law was taking hold in both the settled zone and the desert.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
My paper, then, is based on archaeology in the sense that it comes from a study of extant deserted settlements and relic and current landscapes.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The path has been deserted since the logging in the late 1960s and is now only occasionally used by researchers and visitors.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with desert

desert

These are words often used in combination with desert.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

barren desert
There is barren desert in the north, but rich in nitrate, copper and other minerals, and with a sea rich in fish.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
desert landscape
This ancient desert landscape and its biological communities have very little natural ability to recover from disturbance.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
desert shrub
The area is a desert shrub or pinyon-juniper woodland plant community.
From
Wikipedia
This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with desert
What is the pronunciation of desert?
 

Translations of desert

in Chinese (Traditional)
沙漠，荒漠, 跑掉, 開小差，當逃兵…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
沙漠，荒漠, 跑掉, 开小差，当逃兵…
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in Spanish
desierto, desertar, desertar de…
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in Portuguese
deserto, desertar, abandonar…
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in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Telugu
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
वाळवंट…
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砂漠, ～を去る, （軍務）から脱走する…
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çöl, terketmek, bir yeri terketmek…
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désert [masculine], déserter, abandonner…
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desert, abandonar, desertar (de)…
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in de steek laten, deserteren, woestijn…
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ஒரு பகுதி, பெரும்பாலும் மணல் அல்லது பாறைகளால் மூடப்பட்டிருக்கும், அங்கு மிகக் குறைந்த மழை பொழிவும் மற்றும் பலதரப்பட்ட தாவரங்கள் இருக்காது…
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रेगिस्तान, मरुस्थल…
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રણ…
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forlade, svigte, lade i stikken…
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överge, desertera, öken…
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abai, tinggalkan tanpa izin, padang pasir…
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verlassen, fahnenflüchtig werden, die Wüste…
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ørken [masculine], forlate, desertere…
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ریگستان…
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покидати, залишати, дезертирувати…
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ఎడారి…
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মরুভূমি, বালি বা পাথরে ঢাকা এলাকা যেখানে খুব কম বৃষ্টি হয় এবং গাছপালা খুব কম…
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opustit, zběhnout, poušť…
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meninggalkan, melarikan diri, gurun…
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ทอดทิ้ง, หนีทหาร, ทะเลทราย…
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bỏ đi, đào ngũ, sa mạc…
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pustynia, opuszczać, porzucać…
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사막, 떠나다, 버리다…
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deserto, abbandonare, disertare…
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