desert

«desert» in Mova's school dictionary: a large area of land that gets very little rain, so few… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a desert, deserts) — said «DEZ-ert»; verb (desert, deserts, deserted, deserting) — said «di-ZURT»

meaning for a pupil

1) A desert (DEZ-ert) is a large area of land that gets very little rain, so few plants grow; it may be sandy, rocky, hot or cold. tree →

2) To desert (di-ZURT) someone or somewhere is to leave and not come back, when you should stay. tree →

3) A deserted place has nobody in it. tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography and science, deserts include the Sahara (hot, Africa), the Mojave (USA), the Great Victoria Desert (Australia) and Antarctica (the largest — a cold desert). Desert plants like cacti store water; animals like camels and lizards are adapted to heat and little water. In safety, deserts are hot by day and can be cold at night; carry water and sun protection. Phrases: «desert island», «deserted street».

examples

• The Sahara is a huge hot desert. tree →
• Cacti grow in the desert. tree →
• Camels can go days without water in the desert. tree →
• Antarctica is a cold desert. tree →
• Take lots of water when you visit the desert. tree →
• The soldier deserted his post. tree →
• The beach was deserted in winter. tree →
• Imagine you are on a desert island. tree →
• Now the desert lies behind them. tree →

note

Trap: «desert» (one s, dry land) vs «dessert» (two s, the sweet course after dinner) — remember «dessert has two sugars». Deserts are not always hot or sandy; what makes a desert is very little rain.

In the corpora

• Donkeys bray to call other donkeys, and the sound can carry about 3 kilometres across their desert homeland.
• Desert locusts are grasshoppers that, when crowded, change colour and behaviour and form swarms of billions that eat crops.
• Meerkats live in big burrows with many tunnels and sleep piled together, because deserts get cold at night.
• Gerbils come from deserts where they live in tunnels, so they love a deep layer of bedding to dig in.
• In the big boat-house all the fine boats hang up unused, and the place feels deserted.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «desert» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.