DESERT (3)

desert (3). Desert, n. a wilderness, waste, waste country

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Des″ert, a. [[Cf. L. desertus, p. p. of deserere, and F. désert. See 2d Desert.]] Of or pertaining to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Gray. Desert flora (Bot.), the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and apparently unproductive place. — Desert hare (Zoöl.), a small hare (Lepus sylvaticus, var. Arizonæ) inhabiting the deserts of the Western United States. — Desert mouse (Zoöl.), an American mouse (Hesperomys eremicus), living in the Western deserts.