Desolate vs Distress - What's the difference?
desolate | distress | Synonyms |
Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.
* Bible, Jer. ix. 11
* Tennyson
Barren and lifeless.
Made unfit for habitation or use; laid waste; neglected; destroyed.
Dismal or dreary.
Sad, forlorn and hopeless.
* Keble
To deprive of inhabitants.
To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
To abandon or forsake something.
To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.
(Cause of) discomfort.
* {{quote-book
, year=1833
, author=John Trusler
, title=The Works of William Hogarth: In a Series of Engravings
, chapter=8
Serious danger.
* {{quote-book
, year=1719
, author=Daniel Defoe
, title=Robinson Crusoe
, chapter=13
* {{quote-book
, year=1759
, author=Voltaire
, title=Candide
, chapter=42
(legal) A seizing of property without legal process to force payment of a debt.
(legal) The thing taken by distraining; that which is seized to procure satisfaction.
* Spenser
* Blackstone
To cause strain or anxiety to someone.
* {{quote-book
, year=1827
, author=Stendhal
, title=Armance
, chapter=31
(legal) To retain someone’s property against the payment of a debt; to distrain.
*
To treat an object, such as an antique, to give it an appearance of age.
Desolate is a synonym of distress.
As verbs the difference between desolate and distress
is that desolate is to deprive of inhabitants while distress is to cause strain or anxiety to someone.As an adjective desolate
is deserted and devoid of inhabitants.As a noun distress is
(cause of) discomfort.desolate
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- a desolate''' isle; a '''desolate''' wilderness; a '''desolate house
- I will make Jerusalem a den of dragons, and I will make the cities of Judah desolate , without an inhabitant.
- And the silvery marish flowers that throng / The desolate creeks and pools among.
- desolate altars
- He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.
- voice of the poor and desolate
Verb
(desolat)External links
* * * ----distress
English
Noun
(-)citation, passage=To heighten his distress , he is approached by his wife, and bitterly upbraided for his perfidy in concealing from her his former connexions (with that unhappy girl who is here present with her child, the innocent offspring of her amours, fainting at the sight of his misfortunes, being unable to relieve him farther), and plunging her into those difficulties she never shall be able to surmount.}}
citation, passage=I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress , and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help.}}
citation, passage=At length they perceived a little cottage; two persons in the decline of life dwelt in this desert, who were always ready to give every assistance in their power to their fellow-creatures in distress .}}
- If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle.
- The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for.
Verb
(es)citation, passage=She respects me, no doubt, but has no longer any passionate feeling for me, and my death will distress her without plunging her in despair.}}
- She distressed the new media cabinet so that it fit with the other furniture in the room.