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Desolate vs Downcast - What's the difference?

desolate | downcast | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between desolate and downcast

is that desolate is deserted and devoid of inhabitants while downcast is looking downwards.

As verbs the difference between desolate and downcast

is that desolate is to deprive of inhabitants while downcast is to cast or throw up; to turn upward.

As a noun downcast is

a cast from supertype to subtype.

desolate

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
  • a desolate''' isle; a '''desolate''' wilderness; a '''desolate house
  • * Bible, Jer. ix. 11
  • I will make Jerusalem a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate , without an inhabitant.
  • * Tennyson
  • And the silvery marish flowers that throng / The desolate creeks and pools among.
  • Barren and lifeless.
  • Made unfit for habitation or use; laid waste; neglected; destroyed.
  • desolate altars
  • Dismal or dreary.
  • Sad, forlorn and hopeless.
  • He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.
  • * Keble
  • voice of the poor and desolate

    Verb

    (desolat)
  • To deprive of inhabitants.
  • To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
  • To abandon or forsake something.
  • To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.
  • downcast

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (of eyes) Looking downwards.
  • * Dryden
  • 'Tis love, said she; and then my downcast eyes, / And guilty dumbness, witnessed my surprise.
  • (of a person) Feeling despondent.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (computing) A cast from supertype to subtype.
  • (obsolete) A melancholy look.
  • * Beaumont and Fletcher
  • That downcast of thine eye.
  • (mining) A ventilating shaft down which the air passes in circulating through a mine.
  • Verb

  • (obsolete) To cast or throw up; to turn upward.
  • (Scotland) To taunt; to reproach; to upbraid.
  • (computing) To cast from supertype to subtype.