desecrate 
There is a great friars' church on this side too, the dese- 
crated church of Saint Francis. 
E. A. Freeman, Venice, p. 16. 
As for the material universe, that lias long been almost 
completely desecrated, so that sympathy, communion with 
the forms of Nature, is pretty well conlined to |>oets, and 
is generally supposed to be an amiable madness in them. 
J. 11. Seeley, Nat. Religion, p. 48. 
desecrater (des'e-kra-ter), n. One who dese- 
crates. Also desecrator. 
Man, the desecrater of the forest temple. 
Harper's Mag., LXV. 74. 
desecration (des-e-kra'shqn), . [< desecrate: 
see -ation.~] The act of diverting from a hal- 
lowed purpose or use ; deprivation of a sacred 
character or office ; sacrilegious or profane 
treatment or use. 
Various profanations of the Sabbath have of late years 
been evidently gaining ground among us so as to threaten 
a gradual desecration of that holy day. 
Bp. Porteous, Profanation of the Lord's Day. 
= Syn. Sacrilege, etc. See profanation. 
desecrator (des'e-kra-tor), n. Same as dese- 
crater. 
The tide of emotion [in Burke's breast] . . . filled to 
the brim the cup of prophetic anger against the dese- 
crators of the church and the monarchy of France. 
J. Morley, Burke, p. 129. 
desegmentation (de-seg-men-ta'shon), . [< 
de- priv. + segment + -ation.] The process or 
result of uniting several segments of the body 
in one ; the concrescence of several originally 
distinct metameric segments into one compo- 
site segment; the state or quality of not being 
segmented. Thus, the thorax of an insect, or the cara- 
pace of a lobster, or the cranium of a vertebrate, is a de- 
segmentation of several segments. 
A number of metameres may be united to form larger 
segments in which the separate metameres lose their in- 
dividuality. . . . This state of things results iu a dcseg- 
mentation of the body. 
Gegenbaur, Comp. Anat. (trans.), p. 228. 
desegmented (de-seg'men-ted), a. [< de- priv. 
+ segment + -e(fi.~\ Exhibiting or characterized 
by desegmentation ; coalesced, as two or more 
1558 
desert 1 
serter = P'r. Sp. Pg. dcscrtar = It. de'sertare, 
disertare = D. deserteren = G. desertiren = Dan. 
deserters = Sw. desertcra, < ML. desertare, desert 
(also lay waste), freq. of L. deserere, pp. dcser- 
tus, desert, abandon, forsake, lit. undo one's 
connection with, < dc- priv. + serere, join, bind : 
see series.'] I. trans. 1. To abandon, either in 
a good or a bad sense; forsake ; hence, to cast 
off or prove recreant to: as, to desert a falling 
house ; a deserted village ; to desert a friend or 
a cause. 
Deserted at his utmost need 
By those his former bounty fed. 
Dryden, Alexander's Feast, 1. 80. 
On one occasion he [Cervantes] attempted to escape by 
land to Oran, a Spanish settlement on the coast, but was 
deserted by his guide and compelled to return. 
Sumner, Orations, I. 238. 
Amidst an ancient cypress wood, 
A long-dexerted ruined castle stood. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, I. 324. 
2. To leave without permission ; forsake ; es- 
cape from, as the service in which one is en- 
gaged, in violation of duty : as, to desert an 
army ; to desert one's colors ; to desert a ship. 
Not one common soldier or common sailor is known to 
have deserted his nag. Lincoln, in Raymond, p. 149. 
To desert the diet, in Scots criminal law, to abandon 
proceedings in the particular libel in virtue of which a 
panel has been brought into court. =Syn. Desert, Aban- 
don, etc. (see forsake) ; to quit, vacate, depart from, run 
away from. See list under abandon. 
H. intrans. To quit a service or post without 
permission ; run away : as, to desert from the 
army. 
The poor fellow had deserted, and was now afraid of be- 
ing overtaken and carried back. Goldsmith, Essays. 
Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts 
while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator who in- 
duces him to desert > Lincoln, in Raymond, p. 359. 
desert 1 (dez'ert), a. and n. [Earlier often de- 
sart; < ME. desert, deserte, dezert, desart, deserd, 
diserd(on\y as noun), < OF. desert, dessert, de- 
sert, P. desert, desert (as a noun, OF. desert 
F. desert, m., OF. deserte, f., a desert), = Pr! 
desert = Sp. desierto = Pg. deserto = It. deserto, 
diserto, < L. desertns, deserted, solitary, waste 
(neut. desertum, pi. deserta, a desert), pp. of de- 
serere, desert, abandon, forsake : see desert*, t>.] 
La. 1. Deserted; uncultivated; waste; bar- 
ren; uninhabited. 
He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling 
lerness. r> eut ^^^ 10 
Stray all ye Flocks, and desart be ye Plains. 
Congreve, Death of Queen Mary. 
Amidst thy desert walks the lapwing flies. 
Goldsmith, Des. Vil., I. 45. 
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 
Gray, Elegy. 
2. Pertaining to or belonging to a desert ; in- 
habiting a desert: as, the desert folk Desert 
lands, in the land law of the United States, lands which 
in their existing condition are unfit for cultivation, and 
are sold on easy terms on condition of being made culti- 
vable within a certain period. 
II. n. A desert place or region ; a waste ; a 
wilderness ; specifically, in gcog., a region of 
considerable extent which is almost if not quite 
destitute of vegetation, and hence uninhab- 
ited, chiefly on account of an insufficient sup- 
ply of rain : as, the desert of Sahara; the Great 
American Desert. The presence of large quantities of 
movable sand on the surface adds to the desert character 
of a region. The word is chiefly and almost exclusively used 
with reference to certain regions in Arabia and northern 
Africa and others lying in central Asia. (See stepi>e.) The 
only region in North America to which the word is applied 
is the Great American Desert, a tract of country south and 
west of Great Salt Lake, once occupied by the waters of that 
lake when they extended over a much larger area than they 
now occupy. The name Great American Desert was ori- 
finally given to the unexplored region lying beyond the 
lississippi, without any special designation of its lim- 
its. Colonel Dodge, U. S. A., says in "The Plains of the 
Great West" (1877): " When I was a schoolboy my map of 
the United States showed between the Missouri River and 
the Rocky Mountains a long and broad white blotch, upon 
which was printed in small capitals ' The Great American 
Desert Unexplored.' . . . What was then regarded as a 
desert supports, in some portions, thriving populations." 
In Fremont's report the Great Basin is frequently spoken 
of as "the Desert. " It is also called the Great Desert Baeitt. 
Than the! seven the Pilgrimes of here Vitaylle, for to 
passe with the Desertes, toward Surrye [Syria], 
Mandeville, Travels, p. 63. 
One simile that solitary shines 
In the dry desert of a thousand lines. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. i. 111. 
Oh t that the desert were my dwelling-place, 
With one fair spirit for my minister. 
Byron, Childe Harold, Iv. 177. 
= Syn. Wilderness, Desert. Strictly, awiMernmisawild, 
unreclaimed region, uninhabited and uncultivated, while 
a desert is largely uncultivable and uninhabitable owing 
to lack of moisture. A wilderiiess may be full of luxuriant 
vegetation. In a great majority of the places where desert 
occurs in the authorized version of the Bible, the revised 
version changes it to wilderness. 
A pathless u'ildcrness remains 
Yet unsubdued by man's reclaiming hand. 
Shelley, Queen Mab, ix. 
Look to America. Two centuries ago it was a wilderness 
of buffaloes and wolves. Macaulay, Speech, 1846. 
A patch of sand is unpleasing ; a desert, has all the awe 
of ocean. Lowell, Amung my Books, 1st ser., p. 318. 
desert 2 (de-zerf), n. [< ME. deserte, desert, dis- 
sert, < OF. deserte, desscrtc, merit, recompense, 
< deservir, desservir, deserve: see deserve."] 1. 
A deserving ; that which makes one deserving 
of reward or punishment; merit or demerit; 
good conferred, or evil inflicted, which merits 
an equivalent return : as, to reward or punish 
men according to their deserts. [When used abso- 
lutely, without contrary indication, the word always has 
a good sense. ] 
A rare Example, where Desert in the Subject, and Re- 
ward in the Prince, strive which should be the greater. 
Baker, Chronicles, p. 124. 
In squandering wealth was his peculiar art : 
Nothing went unrewarded but desert. 
Dryden, Abs. and Achit., 1. 560. 
By what accident it matters not, nor upon what desert, 
but just then . . . I had obtained a very considerable de- 
gree of public confidence. Burke, To a Noble Lord. 
Material good has its tax, and if it came without desert 
or sweat, it has no root in me, and the next wind will blow 
it away. Emerson, Compensation. 
2. That which is deserved ; reward or penalty 
merited. 
God of his grace graunte ech mane his deserte ; 
But, for his love, a-mong your thoughtis alle 
As think vp-on my wofulle sorowe smerte. 
Political Poems, etc. (ed. Furnivall), p. 65. 
Render to them their desert. Ps. xxviii. 4. 
Those that are able of body and mind he leaves to their 
deserts. Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 18. 
= Syn. 1. Desert, Merit, Worth. Desert expresses most 
and worth least of the thought or expectation of reward. 
None of them suggests an actual claim. He is a man 
of great worth or excellence; intellectual worth; moral 
worth ; the merits of the piece are small ; he is not likely 
to get his deserts. 
When I compare myself with other men, it seems as if 
I were more favored by the gods than they, beyond any 
deserts that I am conscious of. Thoreau, Walden, p. 143. 
A Roman soldier was allowed to plead the merit of his 
services for his dismission at such an age. 
Dryden, King Arthur, Ded. 
Old letters breathing of her worth. 
Tennyson, Mariana in the South. 
desert-snake 
desert 3 , . See dessert. 
desert-chough (dez'ert-chuf), n. A bird of the 
genus 1'oiloces. 
desertedness (de-zi-r'ted-nes), n. The state of 
being deserted, uninhabited, or desolate. 
It is this metaphysical desertednrss and loneliness of the 
great works of architecture :uid sculpture that deposits a 
certain weight upon the heart. 
//. James, Jr., Portraits of Places, p. 62. 
deserter (de-zer'ter), n. [< desert 1 , v., + -er*. 
Cf . D. G. dcserteur = Dan. Sw. desertor, < F. de- 
serteur = Sp. Pg. desertor = It. desertore, di- 
sertorc, < L. desertor, a deserter, < deserere, pp. 
desertus, desert: see desert^, u.] A person who 
forsakes his cause, his duty, his party, or his 
friends ; particularly, a soldier or seaman who 
absents himself from his position without leave, 
and without the intention of returning. 
A deserter, who came out of the citadel, says the garri- 
son is brought to the utmost capacity. Tatler, No. 59. 
Thou, false guardian of a charge too good, 
Thou, mean deserter of thy brother's blood ! 
Pope, Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady, 1. 30. 
desert-falcon (dez'ert-fa'kn), n. One of sev- 
eral large true falcons inhabiting deserts and 
prairies of various parts of the world, some- 
times grouped in a subgenus Genncea. They are 
closely related to the peregrines, but share the dull gray- 
ish or brownish coloration which characterizes many birds 
of arid open regions. The well-known lanner of the old 
world and the prairie-falcon of western North America, 
Falco mexicanus or t'. polyagm*, are examples. 
desertful (de-zert'ful), a. [< deserfl + -fill, 1.] 
Of great desert; meritorious; deserving. [Bare.] 
When any object of desertful pity 
Olfers itself. 
Chapman, Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois, iv. 1. 
Therein 
He shows himself desertful of his happiness. 
Ford, Lady's Trial, iv. 1. 
desertfullyt (de-zert'ful-i), adv. Deservedly. 
Upon this occasion, Aristotle (and very d?.*?rtfnUy) call- 
eth the common-wealth of the Massilians oligarchia and 
not aristocrateia. Time's Storehouse, p. 58. 
desertion (de-zer'shon), n. [= F. desertion = 
Sp. desertion = Pg. desergao = It. deserzione, < 
LL. desertio(n-), < L. deserere, pp. desertns, de- 
sert: see desert*, t>.] 1. The act of forsaking or 
abandoning, as a party, a friend, a cause, or the 
post of duty ; the act of quitting without leave, 
and with an intention not to return. 
In an evil hour for his fame and fortunes he [Fox] . . . 
abandoned his connection with Pitt, who never forgave 
this desertion. JIamulay, William Pitt. 
2. The state of being deserted or forsaken. 
[Rare.] 
The desertion in which we lived, the simple benches, 
the unhewn rafters, the naked walls, all told me what it 
was I had done. Godwin, St. Leon, I. 211. 
3. The state of being forsaken by God; spiri- 
tual despondency. [Not now in use.] 
Christ hears and sympathizes with the spiritual agonies 
of a soul under desertion, or the pressures of some sting- 
ing affliction. South. 
4. In law, a wilful abandonment of an employ- 
ment or a duty, in violation of a legal or moral 
obligation. Bigelow, Ch. J. in the law of divorce, 
the wilful withdrawal of one of the married parties from 
the other, or the voluntary refusal of one to renew a sus- 
pended cohabitation, without justification in either the 
consent or the wrongful conduct of the other. Bishop. 
Desertion of the diet, in Scots law, the abandoning ju- 
dicially, in a criminal process, of proceedings on the par- 
ticular libel in virtue of which a panel has been brought 
into court. 
desertless (de-zert'les), a. [< desert^ + -less.] 
Without merit or claim to favor or reward ; un- 
deserving. 
I was only wond'ring why Fools, Rascals, and desertless 
Wretches shou'd still have the better of Men of Merit 
with all Women, as much as with their own common Mis- 
tress, Fortune. Wijcherley, Plain Dealer, iv. 1. 
desertlessly (de-zert'les-li), adv. Undeserv- 
edly. [Rare.] 
People will call you valiant desertlessly, I think ; yet, 
for then? satisfaction, I will have you fight with me. 
Beau, and Fl., King and No King, iii. 2. 
desertnesst (dez'ert-nes), n. [< deserfl, a., + 
-ness.] Desert state or condition. 
The desertncs* of the countrey lying waste & saluage did 
nothing feare them from coming to him. 
J. Mall, On Luke v. 
desertricet (de-zer'tris), n. [< LL. ilesertrix 
(desertric-), fern, of L. desertor, a deserter: see 
deserter.] A female who deserts. 
Cleave to a wife and let her be a wife, let her be a meet 
help, a solace, not a nothing, not an adversary, not a de- 
sertrice. Hilton, Tetrachordon. 
desert-snake (dez'ert-snak), . A colubrifonn 
serpent of the family PsammopMdce (or sub- 
