desolate

1 causing or marked by an atmosphere lacking in cheer a desolate house abandoned many years ago Synonyms black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, gloomy, dire, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, solemn, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretchedRelated Words blue, dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, down, droopy, hangdog, inconsolable, low, melancholic, melancholy, mirthless, sad, unhappy, woebegone, woeful; dim, discomfiting, discouraging, disheartening, dismaying, dispiriting, distressful, distressing, upsetting; desperate, hopeless, pessimistic; lamentable, mournful, plaintive, sorrowful; colorless, drab, dull; dour, grim, lowering (also louring), lowery (also loury), menacing, negative, oppressive, threateningNear Antonyms blithe, blithesome, buoyant, gay, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyous, merry, mirthful; encouraging, hopeful, optimistic; lighthearted, lightsomeAntonyms bright, cheerful, cheering, cheery, comforting, cordial, festive, friendly, gay, heartwarming, sunshiny

2 sad from lack of companionship or separation from others destitute and desolate since her husband walked out on her Synonyms lonesome, forlorn, lonely, lornRelated Words friendless; abandoned, deserted, forgotten, forsaken, neglected, rejected; alone, lone, solitary, solo, unaccompanied; only, soleNear Antonyms accompanied, attended, escorted

3 left unoccupied or unused a desolate mining town that had its brief heyday more than a century ago Synonyms derelict, deserted, abandoned, disused, forgotten, forsaken, rejected, vacant, vacated, voidRelated Words ignored, neglected, unattended, untended; castaway, cast-off, discarded, jettisoned, junked, refuse, waste; godforsaken, miserable, shabby, wretched; empty, idleNear Antonyms reclaimed, recovered, redeemed, rescued, retrieved, salvaged, saved; reconditioned, rehabbed, rehabilitated, restored; repeopled

4 producing inferior or only a small amount of vegetation wild, desolate plains on which only the hardiest could survive Synonyms bony (also boney), dead, barren, hardscrabble, impoverished, infertile, poor, stark, unfertile, unproductive, wasteRelated Words bleak, inhospitable, lifeless; uncultivable, untillable; bankrupted, consumed, debilitated, depleted, diminished, drained, dried-up, enfeebled, exhausted, expended, lessened, reduced, spent, used up; arid, desert, droughty, dry, rainless, sere (also sear), thirsty, waterless; baked, dehydrated, parched, sunbakedNear Antonyms arable, tillable; green, sylvan, verdantAntonyms fertile, fruitful, lush, luxuriant, productive, rich