deserts
noun
[ dɪˈzəːts ]
• what a person deserves with regard to reward or (more usually) punishment.
• "the penal system fails to punish offenders in accordance with their deserts"
Origin:
Middle English: via Old French desert, from deservir ‘serve well’ (see deserve).
desert
verb
• abandon (a person, cause, or organization) in a way considered disloyal or treacherous.
• "we feel our public representatives have deserted us"
Similar:
abandon,
leave,
give up,
cast off,
turn one's back on,
throw over,
betray,
jilt,
break (up) with,
neglect,
shun,
leave high and dry,
leave in the lurch,
leave behind,
strand,
leave stranded,
maroon,
relinquish,
renounce,
walk/run out on,
rat on,
drop,
dump,
ditch,
give someone the push,
give someone the big E,
bin off,
forsake,
renege on,
repudiate,
forswear,
wash one's hands of,
have no more truck with,
have done with,
abjure,
disavow,
apostatize,
recant,
disprofess,
abandoned,
forsaken,
cast off/aside,
thrown over,
betrayed,
jilted,
shunned,
neglected,
stranded,
marooned,
relinquished,
renounced,
forlorn,
bereft,
dumped,
ditched,
dropped,
Opposite:
stand by,
Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French deserter, from late Latin desertare, from Latin desertus ‘left waste’ (see desert2).
desert
noun
• a waterless, desolate area of land with little or no vegetation, typically one covered with sand.
• "the desert of the Sinai peninsula is a harsh place"
• a flock of lapwings.
• "a desert of lapwings rises from a ploughed field"
Origin:
Middle English: via Old French from late Latin desertum ‘something left waste’, neuter past participle of deserere ‘leave, forsake’.
