| 释义 |
▪ I. desolate, ppl. a. (n.)|ˈdɛsələt|
Also 4 desolaat, 4–5 disolat, dissolate, 4–6 desolat.
[ad. L. dēsōlāt-us left alone, forsaken, deserted, pa. pple. of dēsōlāre to leave alone, desert, f. de- I. 3 + sōlāre to make lonely, sōlus alone, lonely. The earliest uses were more or less participial.]
†A. as pa. pple. Brought to desolation, laid waste: see desolate v.
1382Wyclif Luke xi. 17 Euery rewme departide aȝens it silf, schal be desolat [desolabitur]. ― Wisd. iv. 19 Vnto the heȝest thei shul ben desolat [desolabuntur].
B. adj.
1. Left alone, without companion, solitary, lonely.
c1386Chaucer Merch. T. 77 He which hath no wif..lyveth helples, and is al desolate. c1450Merlin 596 Many a gentill lady be lefte wedowe, and many a gentill mayden dysolat. 1548Hall Chron. 202 b, Leavyng the erle of Pembroke almoste desolate in the toune. 1657Cokaine Obstinate Lady v. iv, I should live a desolater life Than e'er the strictest anchorite hath done. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 85 A position more desolate than his had been can hardly be imagined. 1863Geo. Eliot Romola iii. xii, No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
†2. Destitute or deprived of, lacking. Rarely with inf.: Without means, quite unable to. Obs.
c1386Chaucer Man of Law's T. 838 So yong, and of armure so desolate. c1430Lydg. Bochas xi. i. (1554) 144 b, John Bochas..dissolate To determine such heauenly-hid secrees. 1535Coverdale Ruth i. 5 The woman remayned desolate of both hir sonnes. 1544T. Phaer Regim. Lyfe (1560) Q iij b, The tender babes are oftentymes affected, and desolate of remedy. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 500 By dissolute courses..leave themselves deservingly desolate, of Lands, Meanes, and Honesty. 1720De Foe Capt. Singleton viii. (1840) 135 The place..was desolate of inhabitants.
†3. Left without a king; kingless. Obs.
1375Barbour Bruce i. 40 The land vj ȝer..Lay desolat eftyr hys day. 1393Gower Conf. I. 248 The lordes..wolden save The regne, which was desolate.
4. Destitute of inhabitants; uninhabited, unpeopled, deserted.
(This sense and 5 are often combined in actual use.)
c1374Chaucer Anel. & Arc. 62 So desolate stode Thebes and so bare. c1450Lydg. Compl. Loveres Lyfe 167 He thus lay on the grounde in place desolate. 1555Eden Decades 42 Many Ilandes very fruitefull yet lefte desolate. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 138 He allured out of Babilon sixe hundred thousand soules, so that the late triumphant Citie became halfe desolate. 1735Berkeley Querist §418 Roads untrodden, fields untilled, houses desolate. 1887Bowen Virg. æneid iv. 588 Desolate shores and abandoned ports.
5. Having the characteristics of a place deserted or uninhabited:
a. in ruinous state or neglected condition, laid waste;
b. without sign of life, bare of trees or herbage, barren;
c. dreary, dismal, cheerless.
1413Pilgr. Sowle iii. i. (Caxton 1483) 49 A derker place, the moost wretchyd and desolate that euer men come ynne. 1559W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 195 Ninivie, a great Citie, but nowe desolate. 1655H. Vaughan Silex Scint. i. 99 Will thy secret key Open my desolate rooms. 1779Newton in R. Palmer Bk. of Praise 86 This land through which His pilgrims go Is desolate and dry. 1838Dickens Nich. Nick. ii, No man thinks of walking in this desolate place. 1847James Convict ii, There was a cheerless, desolate sound about it.
†d. Of the head: Bare of hair, bald. Obs.
c1500Lancelot 366 It semyth that of al his hed ye hore Of fallith and maid desolat.
6. Destitute of joy or comfort, like one bereft of friends or relatives; forlorn, disconsolate; overwhelmed with grief and misery, wretched.
14..Why I can't be a Nun 96 in E.E.P. (1862) 140 For now I am alle desolate, And of gode cownesayle destitute. c1477Caxton Jason 45 b, Gyue confort to a desolate hert. 1598Yong Diana 73 Yet did Arsenius..leade the most sorrowfull and desolate life. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xii. 36 Having heard what this desolate Queen said openly unto him. 1738Wesley Ps. & Hymns cxxxvii. 5 O England's desolate Church. 1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. ix. 67, I must feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and comfort the desolate. 1857H. Reed Lect. Eng. Poets II. xiii. 129 That desolate craving after the departed.
†7. Destitute of good quality, evil, abandoned. (Sometimes app. confounded with dissolute.) Obs.
c1386Chaucer Pard. T. 270 A comun hasardour..ever the heyer he is of astaat The more is he holden desolaat. 1579Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 82/2 Nor glutton, nor thefe, nor man of wicked and desolate life. 1782? Vaughan Fashionable Follies I. 153 Unhappy men of desolate and abandoned principles.
8. Comb., as desolate-looking adj.
1833L. Ritchie Wand. Loire 78 The lonely and desolate-looking wanderer. 1872Jenkinson Guide Eng. Lakes (1879) 154 The barren and desolate-looking valley..in front.
C. absol. or n. A desolate place or person.
a1400–50Alexander 4354 Duells here in disolatis, in dennes & in cauys. 1610G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. (R.), A poor desolate, That now had measured many a weary mile. 1795Southey Joan of Arc vi. 433 Travelling the trackless desolate.
▪ II. desolate, v.|ˈdɛsəleɪt|
[f. prec., after L. dēsōlāre, F. désoler in same sense.
Wyclif has only the pa. pple. desolat (see prec.), and desolatid, immediately f. L. dēsōlāt-us; by the help of these a passive voice was formed; the active to desolate (though implied in the pa. pple. desolated) does not occur till much later; even in Palsgrave 1530, it is only a dictionary equivalent of F. désoler, without example.]
1. trans. To deprive of inhabitants, depopulate.
(This sense and 2 are often combined in use.)
1382Wyclif Ezek. xii. 19 That the loond be desolatid [desoletur] fro his multitude. 1530Palsgr. 514/1, I desolate..I make a countrey unhabyted, Je desole. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 114 [Tarentum] is now by their civill dissentions almost desolated. 1791Cowper Iliad v. 582 And desolate at once your populous Troy. 1875Lyell Princ. Geol. II. ii. xxix. 140 As if the city had been desolated by the plague.
2. To devastate, lay waste; to make bare, barren, or unfit for habitation.
1388Wyclif Matt. xii. 25 Eche kingdom departid aȝens it silf, schal be desolatid [desolabitur]. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. ii. 71 b, His countrie being desolated. 1606G. W[oodcocke] tr. Hist. Iustine 104 a, All his fortunes being desolated and as it were melted from him. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. v. (1840) 106 Would quite desolate the island, and starve them. 1796H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) III. 441 The revolutions of Nature which had desolated France. 1868J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 299 To desolate the houses..of the monks and nuns by such plunder.
absol.1795Southey Joan of Arc i. 177 Thy bitter foes Rush o'er the land, and desolate, and kill.
3. To leave alone, forsake, abandon; to make desolate, deprive of companions or friends.
1530Palsgr. 514/1, I desolate, I forsake one and leave hym comfortlesse..Je desole. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. ii. xxiii. §17 (1873) 231 He did desolate him, and won from him his dependances [i.e. adherents]. 1809[see desolated ppl. a.].
†4. To turn out of, so as to leave without habitation. Obs.
1593Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 41 A Tabernacle..which he shall not be vndermined and desolated out of.
5. To make joyless and comfortless; to overwhelm with grief; to render wretched.
1530[see 3]. 1535Coverdale Dan. ix. 18 Beholde how we be desolated. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. lxxii. 292 Altogether desolated as he was in this last affliction. 1887Spectator 3 Sept. 1176 Buoyed up by constantly renewed hope or desolated by continuous despair. |