v. 1
To leave (anything that depends on one's presence to survive, exist, or succeed), especially when contrary to a promise or obligation; to abandon; to forsake.
You can't just drive off and desert me here, in the middle of nowhere.
adj. 1
Usually of a place: abandoned, deserted, or uninhabited.
They were marooned on a desert island in the Pacific.
n. 1
A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.

Related words

Word family: desertification desert-thorn deserter desertion
Phrases: desert tea desert boot desert cooler desert rheumatism concrete desert desert blue desert cardinal desert cat

Forms

Plural: deserts → wildernesses, wilds, justices, worths…
Past participle: deserted
e.g. deserted → abandoned, forsaken, leaved, ditched…

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

3 letters: due¹, jol
4 letters: drop¹, wild¹, fail¹, quit¹, meed
5 letters: leave¹, worth¹, waste¹, merit², cease¹, ditch¹
6 letters: lonely², vacant², strand¹, defect², barren²
7 letters: justice², abandon³, sterile², forsake², beleave
8 letters: solitary⁴, evacuate⁴, renounce², desolate³, forsaken³, lifeless², abdicate³, untilled
9 letters: deserving³, infertile³, backslide², unpeopled
10 letters: excellence³, wilderness³, relinquish³, peopleless
11 letters: uninhabited⁵, comeuppance³
12 letters: unproductive⁴, tergiversate

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (merit² = 2 syllables).