Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Desert \Des"ert\, a. [Cf. L. desertus, p. p. of deserere, and F.
   d['e]sert. See 2d {Desert}.]
   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} (Zo["o]l.), a small hare ({Lepus sylvaticus},
      var. Arizon[ae]) inhabiting the deserts of the Western
      United States.

   {Desert mouse} (Zo["o]l.), an American mouse ({Hesperomys
      eremicus}), living in the Western deserts.