All 10 Uses of
desolate
in
Cry, the Beloved Country
- The great red hills stand desolate, and the earth has torn away like flesh.
Chpt 1.1desolate = empty, providing no shelter or sustenance
- And then in one fraction of time the hills with the deep melodious names stood out waste and desolate beneath the pitiless sun, the streams ceased to run, the cattle moved thin and listless over the red and rootless earth.
Chpt 1.10
- Who indeed knows why there can be comfort in a world of desolation?
Chpt 1.10desolation = a feeling of extreme sadness or misery--often with loneliness
- But below the tops the grass was dry, and the hills of Ndotsheni were red and bare, and the farmers on the tops had begun to fear that the desolation of them would eat back, year by year, mile by mile, until they too were overtaken.
Chpt 2.18 *desolation = destruction
- Although it comes with tears, it is like a comfort in such desolation.
Chpt 3.30desolation = a state of emptiness that provides no shelter or sustenance
- For who would be chief over this desolation?
Chpt 3.31
- The great heavy clouds swept over the valley, and the lightning flashed over the red desolate hills, where the earth had torn away like flesh.
Chpt 3.34desolate = empty, providing no shelter or sustenance
- For this seed one or two desolate places have been chosen, but the young demonstrator shakes his head over them, there is so little food in the soil.
Chpt 3.35 *desolate = barren (providing no sustenance)
- It is all these things together that have made this valley desolate.
Chpt 3.35desolate = empty, providing no shelter or sustenance
- Kumalo stood shocked at the frightening and desolating words. [That Jarvis is leaving]
Chpt 3.36 *desolating = making him feel very sad and alone
Definitions:
-
(1)
(desolate as in: felt desolate) sad or miserable--and often lonely
-
(2)
(desolate as in: a desolate place) empty, providing no shelter or sustenance
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(3)
(desolate as in: desolated the region) destroyed; or emptied of people; or emptied of most plants and animals
- (4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)