different between desolate vs slay

English

Etymology

From Middle English desolate, from Latin d?s?l?tus, past participle of d?s?l?re (“to leave alone, make lonely, lay waste, desolate”), from s?lus (“alone”).

Pronunciation

• (adjective) IPA^(key): /?d?s?l?t/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /?d?s?le?t/

Adjective

desolate (comparative more desolate, superlative most desolate)

1. Deserted and devoid of inhabitants.

   a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house
2. Barren and lifeless.
3. Made unfit for habitation or use because of neglect, destruction etc.

   desolate altars

4. Dismal or dreary.
5. Sad, forlorn and hopeless.

   He was left desolate by the early death of his wife.

   • voice of the poor and desolate

Translations

Verb

desolate (third-person singular simple present desolates, present participle desolating, simple past and past participle desolated)

1. To deprive of inhabitants.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, “Of Vicissitude of Things” in Essays, London: H. Herringman et al., 1691, p. 204,^[1]

     If you consider well of the People of the West-Indies, it is very probable, that they are a newer or younger People, than the People of the old World. And it is much more likely, that the destruction that hath heretofore been there, was not by Earthquakes, […] but rather, it was Desolated by a particular Deluge: For Earthquakes are seldom in those Parts.

   • 1717, John Dryden (translator), Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Dublin: G. Risk et al., 1727, Volume I, Book I, p. 16,^[2]

     O Righteous Themis, if the Pow’rs above

     By Pray’rs are bent to pity, and to love;

     If humane Miseries can move their Mind;

     If yet they can forgive, and yet be kind;

     Tell how we may restore, by second birth,

     Mankind, and people desolated Earth.

   • 1891, Charles Creighton, A History of Epidemics in Britain, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 1, p. 23,^[3]

     York was so desolated just before the survey that it is not easy to estimate its ordinary population […]

2. To devastate or lay waste somewhere.
   • 1801, Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, 2nd edition, 1809, Volume I, Book 3, p. 118,^[4]

     Then Moath pointed where a cloud

     Of Locusts, from the desolated fields

     Of Syria, wing’d their way.

   • 1905, H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia, Chapter 2, § 3,^[5]

     But in Utopia there will be wide stretches of cheerless or unhealthy or toilsome or dangerous land with never a household; there will be regions of mining and smelting, black with the smoke of furnaces and gashed and desolated by mines, with a sort of weird inhospitable grandeur of industrial desolation, and the men will come thither and work for a spell and return to civilisation again, washing and changing their attire in the swift gliding train.

3. To abandon or forsake something.
4. To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless.
   • 1914, Arnold Bennett, The Author’s Craft, London: Hodder & Stoughton, Part II, p. 44,^[6]

     It is not altogether uncommon to hear a reader whose heart has been desolated by the poignancy of a narrative complain that the writer is unemotional.

   • 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, New York: Scribner, Chapter 36, p. 271,^[7]

     Kumalo stood shocked at the frightening and desolating words.

Related terms

• desolation

Translations

Further reading

• desolate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• desolate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• desolate at OneLook Dictionary Search

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?t?

Adjective

desolate

1. inflection of desolat:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Adjective

desolate f pl

1. feminine plural of desolato

Latin

Participle

d?s?l?te

1. vocative masculine singular of d?s?l?tus

English

Etymology

From Middle English sleen, slayn, from Old English sl?an (“to strike, beat, smite, stamp, forge, sting, slay, kill, impact”), from Proto-West Germanic *slahan, from Proto-Germanic *slahan? (“to fight, strike, kill”), from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”).

Cognate with Dutch slaan (“to beat, hit, strike”), Low German slaan (“hit, strike”), German schlagen (“to beat, hit, strike”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish slå (“to knock, beat, strike”), Icelandic slá (“to strike”). Related to slaughter, onslaught.

Pronunciation

• enPR: sl?, IPA^(key): /sle?/
• Rhymes: -e?
• Homophones: sleigh, sley

Verb

slay (third-person singular simple present slays, present participle slaying, simple past slew or slayed, past participle slain or slayed or yslain)

1. (now literary) To kill, murder.
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene i^[2]:

     The Prince of Morocco:

     […] By this scimitar,

     That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince

     That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,

     I would outstare the sternest eyes that look,

     Outbrave the heart most daring on earth,

     Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear,

     Yea, mock the lion when he roars for prey,

     To win thee, lady. […]

2. (literary) To eradicate or stamp out.

   You must slay these thoughts.

3. (by extension, hyperbolic, colloquial) To defeat, overcome (in a competition or contest).
   • 1956, “Giants Slay Bears in Pro Title Battle”, in Lodi News-Sentinel, 1956 December 31, page 8.
   • 1985, “Redskins slay Giants; Thiesmann shatters leg”, in The Gadsden Times, 1985 November 19, page D1-5.
   • 1993, Jack Curry, “Yanks’ Bullpen Falls Short Again”, in The New York Times, 1993 April 21:

     The Yankees were actually slayed by two former Yankees because Rich Gossage pitched one scoreless inning in relief of Eckersley to notch his first victory.

4. (slang) To delight or overwhelm, especially with laughter.

   Ha ha! You slay me!

5. (slang, transitive, intransitive) To amaze, stun or otherwise incapacitate by awesomeness; to be awesome at something; to kill (slang sense).
6. (slang) to have sex with
   • 2015 Sexual Harassment in Education and Work Settings: Current Research and Best Practices for Prevention: Current Research and Best Practices for Prevention

     The Online Slang Dictionary offers nearly 200 words referring to sexual intercourse. Many of the terms and phrases connote violence, such as: “bang,” “beat,” “chopped up,” “cut,” “hit,” “hit raw,” “hit that,” “kick it,” “nail,” “pound,” “ram,” “slap and tickle,” “slay,” “smack,” “smash,” and “spank”

Usage notes

• The alternative past tense and past participle form "slayed" is most strongly associated with the various slang senses:

  Harry Charles Witwer (1929) Yes Man's Land?^[3], page 254: “"Cutey, you slayed me !" grins Jackie, working fast. "I guess that's what made the rest of 'em look so bad — you was so good!"”

• In recent use, "slayed" is also often found associated with the other senses as well. However, this is widely considered nonstandard.
• A review of US usage 2000-2009 in COCA suggests that "slayed" is increasing in popularity, but remains less common than "slew". It is very rare in UK usage (BNC).
• "Slain" has a current usage in newspaper headlines, as being shorter than "murdered".

Synonyms

• (to kill, murder): kill, murder, assassinate; see also Thesaurus:kill
• (to defeat, overcome): conquer, defeat, overcome
• (to overwhelm or delight): kill, hit it out of the park
• (have sex with): coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Derived terms

• foreslay
• slayee
• slayer

Related terms

• onslaught
• slaughter
• self-slaughter

Translations

References

Anagrams

• lays

Middle English

Alternative forms

• sleye, slaye

Etymology

From metaphorical usage of Old English slege, from Proto-West Germanic *slagi, from Proto-Germanic *slagiz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sl?i?(?)/

Noun

slay (plural slayes)

1. A sley or reed (part of a loom).

Descendants

• English: sley

References

• “sleie, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-25.