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Desolate vs Melancholy - What's the difference?

desolate | melancholy | Synonyms |

As adjectives the difference between desolate and melancholy

is that desolate is deserted and devoid of inhabitants while melancholy is affected with great sadness or depression.

As a verb desolate

is to deprive of inhabitants.

As a noun melancholy is

black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.

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.

    • Related terms

    * desolation

    External links

    * * * ----

    melancholy

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Affected with great sadness or depression.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes

    Synonyms

    * (thoughtful sadness) (l) * See also

    Noun

    (melancholies)
  • (historical) Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
  • *, Bk.I, New York 2001, p.148:
    • Melancholy , cold and dry, thick, black, and sour,is a bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones.
  • Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
  • * 1593 , (William Shakespeare), , V. i. 34:
    • My mind was troubled with deep melancholy .

    Related terms

    * melancholic * sadness