leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch; "The mother deserted her children"
reduce in population; "The epidemic depopulated the countryside"
cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion"
providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"
crushed by grief; "depressed and desolate of soul"; "a low desolate wail"