Defn: The loss or obliteration of division into segments; as, a desegmentation of the body.
DESERT De*sert", n. Etym: [OF. deserte, desserte, merit, recompense, fr. deservir, desservir, to merit. See Deserve.]
Defn: That which is deserved; the reward or the punishment justly
due; claim to recompense, usually in a good sense; right to reward;
merit.
According to their deserts will I judge them. Ezek. vii. 27.
Andronicus, surnamed Pius For many good and great deserts to Rome.
Shak.
His reputation falls far below his desert. A. Hamilton.
Syn.
— Merit; worth; excellence; due.
DESERT
Des"ert, n. Etym: [F. désert, L. desertum, from desertus solitary,
desert, pp. of deserere to desert; de- + serere to join together. See
Series.]
1. A deserted or forsaken region; a barren tract incapable of supporting population, as the vast sand plains of Asia and Africa are destitute and vegetation. A dreary desert and a gloomy waste. Pope.
2. A tract, which may be capable of sustaining a population, but has been left unoccupied and uncultivated; a wilderness; a solitary place. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Is. li. 3.
Note: Also figuratively.
Before her extended Dreary and vast and silent, the desert of life.
Longfellow.
DESERT
Des"ert, a. Etym: [Cf. L. desertus, p. p. of deserere, and F. désert.
See 2d Desert.]
Defn: Of or pertaining to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Gray. Desert flora (Bot.), the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and apparently unproductive place. — Desert hare (Zoöl.), a small hare (Lepus sylvaticus, var. Arizonæ) inhabiting the deserts of the Western United States. — Desert mouse (Zoöl.), an American mouse (Hesperomys eremicus), living in the Western deserts.