Desert vs Island - What's the difference?
desert | island |
(senseid)(usually in plural) That which is deserved or merited; a just punishment or reward
* 1600 , (John Dowland), (Flow My Tears)
* 1897 , (Bram Stoker), (Dracula) Chapter 21
* A. Hamilton
A barren area of land or desolate terrain, especially one with little water or vegetation; a wasteland.
* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
* {{quote-book, year=1892, author=(James Yoxall)
, chapter=5, title= (label) Any barren place or situation.
* 1858 , William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria (page 54)
* 2006 , Philip N. Cooke, Creative Industries in Wales: Potential and Pitfalls (page 34)
Abandoned, deserted, or uninhabited; usually of a place.
* Bible, Luke ix. 10
* Gray
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.
To leave one's duty or post, especially to leave a military or naval unit without permission.
A contiguous area of land, smaller than a continent, totally surrounded by water.
* 2002 , Gordon L. Rottman, World War 2 Pacific island guide
An entity surrounded by other entities that are very different from itself.
* 1939 , Deseret News, October 27 1939, Roosevelt Reaffirms American Neutrality
A superstructure on an aircraft carrier's deck.
(chiefly, UK) A traffic island.
To surround with water; make into an island
* 1933 , Harriet Monroe, Poetry: Volume 42
To set, dot (as if) with islands
To isolate
* , (A Shropshire Lad), XXVII, lines 1-2
As a noun desert
is desert.As an adjective desert
is deserted.As a proper noun island is
iceland.desert
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) from the (etyl) deserte, fromNoun
(en noun)- From the highest spire of contentment / my fortune is thrown; / and fear and grief and pain for my deserts / are my hopes, since hope is gone.
- "Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts , and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!"
- His reputation falls far below his desert .
Derived terms
* just desertsEtymology 2
(etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, / A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.
The Lonely Pyramid, passage=The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.}}
- He declared that the country was an intellectual desert ; that he was famishing for spiritual aliment, and for discourse on matters beyond mere nuggets, prospectings, and the price of gold.
- So the question that is commonly asked is, why put a media incubator in a media desert and have it managed by a civil servant?
Adjective
(-)- They were marooned on a desert island in the Pacific.
- He went aside privately into a desert place.
- Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Derived terms
* desert boot * desert island * desert lynx * desert pavement * desert pea * desert rat * desert soil * desert varnish * desertification * food desert * preach in the desertEtymology 3
From (etyl)Verb
(en verb)- You can't just drive off and desert me here, in the middle of nowhere.
- Anyone found deserting will be shot.
Derived terms
* deserter * desertion * desert or leave a sinking shipAnagrams
* * English heteronyms ----island
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (nonstandard) * (l), (l), (l) (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- Sumatra is the second largest island in the East Indies and the fourth largest in the world covering 182,859 square miles.
- an island of tranquility (a calm place surrounded by a noisy environment)
- an island of colour on a butterfly's wing
- King Leopold, speaking in fluent English during his six minute broadcast, said Belgium stood side by side with Holland "an Island of peace in the interests of all"
- the island in the middle of a roundabout
Synonyms
* (land surrounded by water) (l), (l) * (an entity surrounded by other very different entities) oasisDerived terms
* coney island * desert island * floating island * heat island * high island * interisland * islander * island dispenser * island display * island-hop * island position * island state * island universe * islandwide * islandy * low island * no man is an island * safety island * security island * the Island * sea-island * tidal islandVerb
(en verb)- We paused at little river cities along the way and walked upon their bushy dikes, and heard tales of overflows in flood seasons, when four feet or more of water islanded the houses.
- ''High the vanes of (Shrewsbury) gleam
- Islanded in Severn stream''.