Oxford Thesaurus - An A-Z Dictionary Of Synonyms

(from), defect, abandon; Military slang go over the hill: He deserted and will be court-martialled.

desertý n. Often, deserts. payment, recompense, requital, compensation, due, right; retribution, justice, Slang comeuppance, what's

coming to one: She'll get her just deserts one of these days.

deserted adj. abandoned, desolate, forsaken, neglected, uninhabited, unpeopled, vacant, vacated, unfrequented, unvisited, unoccupied, empty; stranded, rejected, God-forsaken, isolated, solitary, lonely, friendless: At that hour the streets are completely deserted.

deserter n. runaway, fugitive, escapee, absconder, defector, renegade, outlaw; traitor, turncoat, Colloq rat: Deserters are shot when caught.

deserve v. merit, earn, be entitled to, be worthy of, rate, warrant, justify: You ought to be nicer to him - he really doesn't deserve such unkind treatment.

deserved adj. merited, earned, just, rightful, suitable, fitting, fit, appropriate, proper, right, fair, equitable, meet, warranted, condign: Carla was never given her deserved credit for catching the thief.

deserving adj. meritorious, worthy, merited, commendable, laudable, praiseworthy, creditable, estimable: Perhaps you should leave your money to a deserving charity.

design v. 1 plan, draw up, think of, conceive of, contemplate, devise, lay out, visualize, envisage, envision, sketch (out), pattern,

set up: The building was originally designed as the centre-piece for a whole new development. 2 plan, sketch (out), delineate, outline, draft, work or map or block out, lay out, devise, invent, contrive, create, conceive, originate, think up, develop, organize, frame, shape, mould, forge, make, construct, form, fashion: John Smithers has designed a new sales strategy for the company. 3 sketch, draft, lay out, draw; form, devise: Who designed the company's new logo? 4 intend, mean, plan; purpose, destine; scheme, plot: The building was originally designed to be a school. The book was designed for children.

--n. 5 plan, scheme, conception, study, project, proposal, undertaking, enterprise; blueprint, pattern, chart, diagram, layout, map, drawing, draft, sketch, model, prototype: The grand design for rebuilding the city was not approved. 6 form, shape, configuration, pattern, style, motif, format, layout, make-up, delineation, arrangement, organization, composition, structure, construction: I don't much care for her new design of my monogram. 7 aim, purpose, intention, objective, object, goal, point, target, intent: My design had been to go at once to London. 8 designs. plot, intrigue, stratagem, cabal,

conspiracy, conniving, manipulation, connivance, evil intent or intentions: His designs against me have borne bitter fruit.

designate v. 1 indicate, specify, pinpoint, particularize, delineate, point out, identify, state, set forth, write or put down, name: You should designate your heirs in your will. 2 appoint, nominate, name, identify, denominate, select, pick, choose, elect, assign, appropriate, delegate, depute: She has not yet designated her successor. 3 mean, stand for, symbolize, denote, represent: The Greek letter pi designates the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. 4 call, name, style, term, label, christen, dub, nickname, entitle: Elvis was publicly designated 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll'.

designer n. 1 creator, originator, architect, artificer, author, deviser, inventor; (interior) decorator, artist; draughtsman:

Raymond Loewy was a designer of locomotives and fountain pens. Lady Mendl was the best-known interior designer of the 1920s. 2 intriguer, schemer, conniver, plotter, conspirator: He is a

cunning designer who has wormed his way into favour with the management.

designing adj. scheming, plotting, conniving, conspiring, intriguing, calculating, wily, tricky, cunning, sly, underhand(ed), crafty, artful, shrewd, Machiavellian, guileful, deceitful, double-dealing, devious, treacherous, Colloq crooked: The prince has fallen prey to designing courtiers.

desirable adj. 1 sought-after, wanted, coveted, longed-for, looked-for, desired: Few things are more desirable than security in old age. 2 attractive, pleasant, pleasing, agreeable, winning, winsome, captivating, seductive, alluring, fetching: Their

daughter had grown up into a most desirable young lady. 3 good,

goodly, excellent, choice, fine, superior, superb, Colloq Brit plummy: The company has produced some very desirable motor cars. 4 profitable, worthwhile, beneficial, advantageous, valuable, worthy, estimable, commendable, admirable: Lady Chelm's plan possesses many desirable attributes.

desire v. 1 crave, want, fancy, covet, wish for, hope for, long or yearn for, pine or sigh for, hanker after, have an eye or taste for, hunger or thirst for or after, die for, have one's heart

set on, give one's eye-teeth for, Colloq have a yen for, Slang US have the hots for: I desire nothing but your happiness. He desired her more than anything else in the world. 2 ask for,

request, order, demand, solicit, importune, summon, require: Do you desire anything further, sir?

--n. 3 longing, craving, yearning, hankering, hunger, thirst, appetite; passion, lust, libido, lustfulness, concupiscence, lecherousness, lechery, lasciviousness, salaciousness, prurience, Slang hot pants, US the hots; Colloq yen: He felt desire rising in him like a fever. 4 wish, request, urge, requirement, order, requisition, demand, desideratum; appeal, entreaty, petition: He fulfils her every desire.

desirous adj. wishful, desiring, longing, yearning, hopeful, hoping: I was desirous to learn more about his whereabouts.

desolate adj. 1 solitary, lonely, isolated, deserted, forlorn, forsaken, friendless, alone, abandoned, neglected; desert, uninhabited, empty, unfrequented, bare, barren, bleak, remote: He felt desolate after his wife's death. Tristan da Cunha is a group of four desolate islands in the Atlantic. 2 laid waste, ruined, devastated, ravaged, destroyed: The explosion left the surrounding countryside desolate. 3 dreary, dismal, wretched, joyless, cheerless, comfortless, miserable, unhappy, down, disconsolate, sad, melancholy, sorrowful, forlorn, mournful,

woebegone, gloomy, broken-hearted, heavy-hearted, inconsolable, dejected, downcast, downhearted, dispirited, low-spirited, depressed, melancholy, spiritless, despondent, dismal,

distressed, discouraged, hopeless: He has brought some happiness into her desolate existence.

--v. 4 depopulate: The country was desolated by famine. 5 destroy, devastate, ruin, lay waste, despoil, ravage, demolish,

obliterate, annihilate, raze, gut: Invaders desolated the countryside. 6 dismay, dishearten, depress, daunt, dispirit, sadden, deject, dispirit, discourage: He was either buoyed up by renewed hope or desolated by despair.

desolation

n. 1 destruction, ruin, devastation, waste, spoliation, despoliation, sack, depredation, extirpation, obliteration, ravagement, barrenness, havoc, chaos: We had to shape a new life from the desolation left by the war. 2 grief, sorrow, dreariness, despair, gloom, distress, melancholy, sadness, misery, woe, anguish, wretchedness, dolour, dolefulness, unhappiness: She felt the desolation of loneliness after her husband's death.

despair n. 1 hopelessness, desperation, discouragement, disheartenment, despondency, dejection, depression, gloom, gloominess, misery, melancholy, wretchedness, distress, miserableness, anguish; resignation: The despair of the prisoners was evident in their ravaged faces.

--v. 2 give up or lose hope; surrender, quit: We despaired of ever seeing our children again.

desperate adj. 1 reckless, foolhardy, rash, impetuous, frantic, frenzied, panic-stricken: Desperate measures are required in such a desperate situation. 2 careless, hasty, devil-may-care, wild, mad, frenetic, furious: They made a last desperate attack on

the fort. 3 anxious (for), craving, hungry (for), thirsty (for), needful (of), desirous (of), covetous (of), eager (for),

longing or yearning (for), wishing (for), hoping (for), aching (for), pining (for): She is desperate for attention. 4 urgent, pressing, compelling, serious, grave, acute, critical, crucial, great: There is a desperate need for medicines at the disaster site. 5 precarious, perilous, life-threatening, hazardous, dangerous, tenuous, hopeless, beyond hope or help: Avalanches are making the climbers' situation even more desperate. 6 at one's wits' end, forlorn, despairing, despondent, wretched, at the end of one's tether, frantic: With no one to turn to for

help, he was truly desperate.

desperation

n. 1 recklessness, impetuosity, rashness, foolhardiness,

imprudence, heedlessness: Penniless and half-starved, he was driven to desperation and stole a loaf of bread. 2 despair, anxiety, anguish, anxiousness, despondency, depression, dejection, discouragement, defeatism, pessimism, hopelessness, distress, misery, melancholy, wretchedness, gloom, sorrow: In a final act of desperation, he attempted suicide.

despicable

adj. contemptible, below or beneath or beyond contempt or scorn or disdain, mean, detestable, base, low, scurvy, vile, sordid, wretched, miserable, ignoble, ignominious, shabby; shameful, shameless, reprehensible: He is a thoroughly despicable person and you should have nothing more to do with him.

of, in the face or teeth of, in defiance of, without considering, without thought or consideration or regard for,

ignoring: We went sailing despite the fact that gales had been forecast.

despondent

adj. dejected, sad, sorrowful, unhappy, melancholy, blue, depressed, down, downcast, downhearted, low, morose, miserable, disheartened, discouraged, dispirited, low-spirited, down in the mouth, Colloq down in the dumps: He's been despondent since she went away.

despot n. absolute ruler, dictator, tyrant, oppressor, autocrat: History has painted Ivan the Terrible as one of the cruellest despots of all time.

despotic adj. dictatorial, tyrannical, oppressive, authoritarian, imperious, domineering, totalitarian, absolute, autocratic, arbitrary: The country was under the despotic rule of a callous tyrant.

despotism n. autocracy, monocracy, autarchy, totalitarianism, absolutism, dictatorship, tyranny, oppression, suppression, repression: She

denounced the new laws as another instance of the brutal despotism of the regime.

dessert n. sweet, Brit pudding, Colloq Brit pud, afters: For dessert, I had ice-cream and she had a fruit tart.

destination

n. journey's end, terminus, stop, stopping-place; goal, end, objective, target: Our destination is Bristol.

destine v. 1 fate, predetermine, predestine, ordain, foreordain, preordain; doom: His only ambition was to be a successful farmer, but the gods destined him for greater things. 2 design, intend, mean, devote, assign, appoint, designate, purpose, mark, earmark, set aside: He beheld the chariot destined to carry him heavenwards.

destined adj. 1 meant, intended, designed, predetermined, foreordained, predestined, fated; doomed, written; US in the cards: His destined end was to be shot while escaping. Oliver was destined to fail at everything he tried. It was destined that the boy

would become king. 2 certain, sure, bound, ineluctable, unavoidable, inevitable, inescapable: Being devoured by monsters is the destined demise of all who dare to enter there.

destiny n. fate, doom, fortune, lot, kismet, karma: It is my destiny to be ignored when living and forgotten when dead.

destitute adj. 1 in want, impoverished, poverty-stricken, poor, indigent, down and out, needy, on one's uppers, badly off, penniless, penurious, impecunious, insolvent, bankrupt, Colloq hard up, broke, US on skid row: Why distribute food to destitute

families only at Christmas? 2 Usually, destitute of. bereft of, deficient in, deprived of, devoid of, lacking (in), wanting (in), in need, needful (of), without: The landscape was entirely destitute of trees.

destroy v. 1 demolish, tear or pull down, raze, wipe out, ravage, wreck, smash, ruin, break up or down, annihilate, crush, eradicate, extirpate, exterminate, devastate, commit mayhem, lay waste, vandalize, Slang US trash: The invading hordes destroyed everything, leaving desolation in their wake. The storm destroyed fifty houses. 2 ruin, do away with, end, make an end

of, bring to an end, bring or put an end to, terminate, finish, kill: Realizing what he had done, he destroyed himself. The trial destroyed his career. 3 counteract, neutralize, nullify, annul, cancel (out), reverse; stop, interfere with: Caught embezzling, Martin destroyed everything he had worked for. Sunspot activity destroyed radio transmission this week. 4 disprove, refute, confute, deny, contradict, negate, overturn, overthrow, ruin, spoil, undermine, weaken, enfeeble, devitalize, exhaust, disable, cripple: By pointing out just one flaw, she destroyed his entire argument.

destruction

n. 1 demolition, razing, wrecking, ruin, ruining, ruination, breaking up or down, mayhem, havoc, annihilation, devastation, tearing or knocking down, laying waste, ravagement; rack and ruin, Colloq wiping out: The destruction of the city took place in 1942. 2 slaughter, annihilation, killing, eradication,

murder, extermination, holocaust, liquidation, massacre, extinction, genocide, assassination, slaying, putting to death, putting an end to, making an end of, doing away with, putting away, Colloq doing in, wiping out; Slang US rubbing out, rub-out: They were bent on the destruction of an entire people. 3 undoing, end, ruin, ruination, downfall, termination, breakup, breakdown, collapse: The imprisonment of the bosses spelt the destruction of the entire crime network.

destructive

adj. 1 harmful, injurious, baneful, pernicious, dangerous, hurtful, toxic, poisonous, virulent, noxious, bad, malignant, baleful, unwholesome, damaging, detrimental, deleterious, devastating; deadly, fatal, lethal, fell, killing, internecine: The spray keeps away insects but is destructive of the plant life. 2 negative, adverse, opposing, opposed, contrary, contradictory, antithetical, conflicting, unfavourable,

condemnatory, derogatory, disparaging, disapproving, critical: The playwrights feared and disliked him because of his destructive criticism.

desultory adj. shifting, devious, unsteady, irregular, wavering, inconstant, fitful, spasmodic, unmethodical, disconnected, unsystematic, disorderly, disordered, unorganized, disorganized, inconsistent, random, haphazard, chaotic, erratic, shifty: He made no more than a desultory effort to stop smoking. The

complete, inclusive, particularized, precise, exact, minute, blow-by-blow, circumstantial: He kept a detailed report of everything that happened on D-Day. 2 intricate, complex, complicated, elaborate, ornate: Note the detailed scrollwork on this screen.

detect v. 1 uncover, find (out), discover, locate, learn of, ascertain, determine, dig up, unearth: The pathologist detected the presence of prussic acid in the victim's bloodstream. 2 perceive, note, notice, identify, spot, observe, sense, read, scent, smell, discern, feel, catch, find: Did I detect a tone

of sarcasm in your reply, young man?

detective n. investigator, private investigator, CID man, policeman, constable, Colloq private eye, sleuth, Sherlock, snoop, snooper, Brit tec, US P.I., dick, Hawkshaw; Slang cop, copper, US and Canadian gumshoe, peeper: Detectives have at last solved the case of the missing weapon.

detention n. custody, confinement, imprisonment, captivity, internment, incarceration, restraint, Archaic or literary durance: The

culprit was kept in detention for a week.

deter v. dissuade, discourage, inhibit, intimidate, daunt, frighten off or from or away, scare off or from; prevent, stop, obstruct, check, hinder, impede: I was deterred from entering by three large dogs. Regular spraying of plants helps to deter aphid infestation.

detergent n. 1 cleaner, cleanser, soap (powder or flakes or liquid); surfactant, surface-active agent, detersive: You put too much detergent into the washing machine and it overflowed.

--adj. 2 cleaning, cleansing, washing, purifying, detersive: The detergent effect is reduced if too much soap is used.

deteriorate

v. 1 worsen, decline, degenerate, degrade, spoil, worsen, get worse, depreciate, slip, slide, Colloq go to pot, go to the dogs, go downhill: We have watched their relationship deteriorate over the years. 2 decay, decline, disintegrate, fall apart, decompose, crumble, erode: The building slowly deteriorated and is now uninhabitable.

determination

n. 1 resoluteness, resolution, firmness, resolve, steadfastness, tenacity, perseverance, fortitude, doggedness,

persistence, constancy, single-mindedness, will (power), Colloq grit, guts: The idea is a good one, if only she has the determination to see it through. 2 settlement, resolution, resolving, decision, solution, judgement, verdict, outcome, result, upshot, conclusion, end, termination: None of us could live in peace till the determination of the border dispute. 3 fixing, settling, ascertainment, ascertaining, delimitation, definition: The determination of our position is critical in setting our course.

determine v. 1 settle, decide, clinch, arbitrate, judge, adjudge, conclude, terminate, end: The ambiguity must be determined one way or the other. 2 ascertain, find out, discover, conclude,

infer, draw, learn, detect; verify: From the evidence, they determined the identity of the intruder. 3 decide, choose, select, resolve, make up one's mind, settle on or upon, fix on

or upon: You alone can determine which candidate you want to vote for. 4 affect, influence, act on, shape, condition,

govern, regulate, dictate: There were many factors determining my choice.

determined

adj. 1 decided, resolute, resolved, purposeful, dogged, strong-willed, strong-minded, single-minded, tenacious, intent, firm, unflinching, unwavering, fixed, constant, persistent, persevering, steady, unfaltering, unhesitating, unyielding, stubborn, obstinate, adamant: He was determined not to go. We made a determined effort to locate the wreck. 2 fixed, determinate, definite, exact, precise, distinct, predetermined, ascertained, identified: They worked to a previously determined plan. They agreed to pay a percentage of the determined price.

deterrent n. hindrance, impediment, discouragement, disincentive, dissuasion, check, hitch, obstacle, obstruction, stumbling-block; catch, snag, rub, fly in the ointment, bar, drawback: Some experts hold that the death penalty is no deterrent to murder. The only deterrent to your plan is that we are likely to be caught.