Definition of "desert"

From the highest spire of contentment / my fortune is thrown; / and fear and grief and pain for my deserts / are my hopes, since hope is gone.

1600, John Dowland, Flow My Tears

Who will believe my verse in time to come,If it were fill'd with your most high deserts?

1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 17”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley

"Nonsense, Mina. It is a shame to me to hear such a word. I would not hear it of you. And I shall not hear it from you. May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!"

1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library

His reputation falls far below his desert.

July 4, 1789, Alexander Hamilton, Eulogium on Major-General Greene

"It is true that certain common sense precepts of justice, particularly those which concern the protection of liberties and rights, or which express the claims of desert, seem to contradict this contention."

1971, John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

And ye poore Pilgrimes, that vvith reſtleſſe toyle / VVearie your ſelues in vvandring deſert vvayes, […]

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard, […], London: […] [Thomas Orwin] for William Ponsonby, […], signature [C4], recto

Not thus the land appear'd in ages past, / A dreary desert and a gloomy waste.

1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717

The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. Whirling wreaths and columns of burning wind, rushed around and over them.

1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid

He declared that the country was an intellectual desert; that he was famishing for spiritual aliment, and for discourse on matters beyond mere nuggets, prospectings, and the price of gold.

1858, William Howitt, Land, Labour, and Gold; Or, Two Years in Victoria, page 54

By contrast, the WR route is an economic desert between Newbury and Taunton.

1964 March, “News and Comment: Which way to the West?”, in Modern Railways, page 147

So the question that is commonly asked is, why put a media incubator in a media desert and have it managed by a civil servant?

2006, Philip N. Cooke, Creative Industries in Wales: Potential and Pitfalls, page 34

And he said vnto them, Come yee your selues apart into a desert place, and rest a while. For there were many comming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eate.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Mark vi:31

He […] went aside privately into a desert place.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Luke ix:10

See, from afar, yon Rock that mates the Sky, / About whoſe Feet ſuch Heaps of Rubbiſh lye: / Such indigeſted Ruin; bleak and bare, / How deſart now it ſtands, expos'd in Air!

1697, Virgil, “The Eighth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], page 441, lines 252–255

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, / And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

1750, Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Stanza 14

Francis, besides being an excellent Cook, knowing how to provide genteel Dinners, and giving aid in dressing them, prepared the Desert, made the Cake, and did every thing that Hyde & wife conjointly do;—[…]

1790 September 20, George Washington, Letters from George Washington to Tobias Lear: With an Appendix Containing Miscellaneous Washington Letters and Documents; Reprinted from the Originals in the Collection of Mr. William K. Bixby, of St. Louis, Mo.; With Introduction and Notes, Rochester, N.Y., published 1905, page 8

They answer for caramel or gum paste baskets, for desert or suppers. […] BARBERRIES / For Deserts, or Second Course Pastry. […] Under these impressions—admitting, as they would, such a variety of combinations, the Author has confined himself to a plain selection of the principal articles in season in each month, merely to give a good general idea of laying out a table for deserts, leaving to the house[-]keeper to vary, and increase or diminish, according to her taste, or the extent of her company.

1816, John Simpson, A Complete System of Cookery, on a Plan Entirely New; Consisting of an Extensive and Original Collection of Receipts, in Cookery, Confectionary, etc. […], London: […] W. Stewart, […]; Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […]; Gale and Fenner, […], pages 518, 525, and 541

The deserts are far more superb; the painter, the florist, the decorator, and even the sculptor being engaged to complete them. Formerly a desert at a splendid fete in a private house has cost a thousand pounds, exclusive of plate and glass.

1818, Peter Hervé, How to Enjoy Paris; Being a Complete Guide to the Visiter of the French Metropolis. […], 2nd edition, London: […] the Author: […] Mr. Egerton, Whitehall; Messrs. Hoitt, […]; and Mesers.[sic] Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], page 286