| 释义 |
desert
I. des·ert \ˈdezə(r)]t, usu ]d.+V\ noun
(-s)
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin desertum, from Latin, neuter of desertus, past participle of deserere to desert, from de- + serere to join together — more at series
1.
a. archaic : a wild uninhabited and uncultivated tract : a desolate unoccupied plain or coast or pathless woodland : wilderness, waste
b. : any of the formerly unsettled regions of the United States between the Mississippi river and the Rocky mountains thought to be arid and uninhabitable
2.
a. : a region in which the vegetation is so scanty as to be incapable of supporting any considerable population (as a region perpetually cold or covered with snow or ice or a region located in the interior of a continent and characterized by scanty rainfall especially of less than 10 inches annually)
b. : a more or less barren tract incapable of supporting any considerable population without an artificial water supply
c. : an area of an ocean believed to be devoid of marine life
3. : a secluded place for secret worship by the Huguenots during years 1715-1802 when Protestantism was under proscription in France
4. : a desolating or forbidding prospect (as from pathless emptiness, bleak unrelieved changelessness or monotony, futility of effort, or destitution of mental or spiritual animation or stimulation)
< tiny fingers lost in an immense desert of darkness — Beverley Nichols >
< lost in a desert of doubt >
< eagles still soar between the summit of Parnassus and the Corinthian gulf, but they look down upon a desert of human history — Mark Van Doren >
II. des·ert \“, in sense 1 usually like desert III\ adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin desertus
1. archaic : deserted
< the boat deck was utterly desert — Waldo Frank >
2.
a. : desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied : inhospitable
< so desert a country as the Highlands of Scotland — Adam Smith >
b. : uncultivated and uninhabited : barren like a desert
< one could scarcely find a more desert tract for a settler >
3. : having its habitat in a desert
< desert flora and fauna >
4. : peculiar to or adapted to life in a desert
< sturdy desert boots >
III. de·sert \də̇ˈzər]t, dēˈ-, -zə̄], -zəi|, usu ]d.+V\ noun
(-s)
Etymology: Middle English deserte, from Old French, from feminine of desert (past participle of deservir to deserve), from Latin deservitus, past participle of deservire to serve zealously — more at deserve
1.
a. : the quality or fact of being worthy of or deserving of rewards or recompense or of requital or punishment
< the concept of desert is essentially indefinable except in terms of existing practices and ideas — G.H.Sabine >
b. : a complex of actions calling for such returns
< in the midst is seated Justice to award to each according to his desert — Carleton Brown >
2.
a. : reward or punishment deserved or earned by one's qualities or acts
< not weighing our deserts but pardoning our offenses — Missale Romanum >
< by dint of much caballing and much dwelling upon his own deserts he triumphed over his enemies — Virginia Woolf >
b. deserts plural : awards due for superior or inferior qualities of art or workmanship
< book reviewers … frequently praise the first venture of a writer beyond its just deserts — Harrison Smith >
3. : worthiness or excellence of character as adduced by a good course of conduct
< he won the appointment on grounds of desert rather than through family prestige >
Synonyms: see due
IV. desert verb
(-ed/-ing/-s)
Etymology: French déserter, from Late Latin desertare, from Latin desertus, past participle of deserere to desert — more at desert I
transitive verb
1. : to withdraw from or leave permanently or less often temporarily (as a place) : quit
< farmers continue to desert the land to take up factory work >
< the smile deserting his broad face — T.B.Costain >
< phrases which never desert the memory — T.S.Eliot >
2.
a. : to turn away from (what has previously engaged one) especially by withdrawing support or disrupting bonds of attachment or duty : reject in order to take up something else : abandon
< who, 30 years before, upon being deserted by her lover had taken to her bed — Margaret Deland >
< coming at last to desert the Prohibition party >
< he deserted prose for the compensating rhythms of poetry — Tyrus Hillway >
b. : to leave behind or give up (as a person) — used with to
< forced to desert the rest of the miners to their fate >
c. : to renounce marital relations by quitting the company of (one's spouse)
3.
a. : to break away from or break off association with (some matter involving legal or moral obligation or some object of loyalty) : betray
< not propose to desert the 100-year-old Monroe Doctrine — A.H.Vandenberg †1951 >
< would be a calamity if these sciences deserted the ideal of accurate and verifiable systematic knowledge for its own sake — M.R.Cohen >
b. : to abandon (military service) without leave : forsake in violation of duty
< guilty of deserting his fellow soldiers >
4. : to drop away or escape from (a person) usually causing a distinct sense of loss or discomfiture : leave in the lurch : forsake
< all sense of courtly etiquette deserting him — T.B.Costain >
intransitive verb
1. : to quit one's post, leader, or service without leave
< the native guides quietly deserted during the night >
< the more liberal members of the party began deserting >
2. : to change one's allegiance
< he gave fear of a return of Nazism as the reason for his deserting to the Communists >
3.
a. : to quit military service without right
< determined to desert >
: absent oneself without leave from proper post, station, or duty with the intent to remain away permanently
b. : to leave one's proper place to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service : accept appointment or enlist in the same or another armed service without first being regularly separated : enter a foreign armed service without authorization by the United States
c. of an officer : to quit one's post without leave and with intent to remain away permanently after tendering one's resignation but before due notice of acceptance of it has been received |