What's the difference between desolate and scourge?

Desolate


Definition:

  • (a.) Destitute or deprived of inhabitants; deserted; uninhabited; hence, gloomy; as, a desolate isle; a desolate wilderness; a desolate house.
  • (a.) Laid waste; in a ruinous condition; neglected; destroyed; as, desolate altars.
  • (a.) Left alone; forsaken; lonely; comfortless.
  • (a.) Lost to shame; dissolute.
  • (a.) Destitute of; lacking in.
  • (v. t.) To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of inhabitants; as, the earth was nearly desolated by the flood.
  • (v. t.) To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage; as, a fire desolates a city.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Downtown LA is improving, but for years it was a desolate hell zone of freeways, office blocks and closed stores.
  • (2) The coast here feels like an island, desolate and full of surprises.
  • (3) The Eritrean government requires every pupil to complete their final year of high school by serving in Sawa Military Camp, in the desolate, semi-desert region of eastern Eritrea .
  • (4) But for the next few hours, though, there's little to excite us: Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) The economic data calendar is a desolate wasteland of nothingness.
  • (5) When it is not clogged with weekend traffic, Container – the English word is used in Arabic – is a desolate spot: a lonely stretch of asphalt, four dingy tollbooth-like structures painted white and green, a few bored Israeli soldiers with automatic rifles.
  • (6) They are kept in a small pen behind the Lion's Den, a pub on a ranch in desolate countryside 75 miles south of Johannesburg.
  • (7) It was after the Indian wars of the 1870s that the indigenous tribes started to be consigned to reservations – on the worst, most desolate lands for grazing or growing crops.
  • (8) And, Jinkyo-En which was a desolate waste has come to an oasis in life for the Hansenites.
  • (9) The first time I saw the building - a stark, unapologetically angular silver bunker throwing back the heat of a rather desolate part of Berlin - I was content to register its disturbance without question, submitting to its strategies of oppression and disorientation as a child would.
  • (10) "Given the complexity of this crisis and the extent of the distress of our people from the north … we must together, I say together, clear the path ahead to free our country from these invaders, who only leave desolation, deprivation and pain in their wake."
  • (11) And it's Christmas bonanza time along the high streets of Britain, where Oxfam outlets and estate agents lie lonely amid empty sites and desolate closed doors.
  • (12) Australian visual effects wizard Dave Clayton has been nominated for his work on The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
  • (13) But, like many streets in New York City and in cities across the US, it is becoming increasingly desolate.
  • (14) Season two crafted complex characters racked with existential ambivalence – heroines marked for the abyss, fragile, flammable outcasts and desolate prodigies, all of whose private pain was as palpable as the crimson bloodbath head witch Evelyn Poole soaks in.
  • (15) Instead, they suggest expanding the scope of services in family planning clinics, out of an awareness that the continuing high prevalence of unintended childbearing, among the young and disadvantaged in particular, is part of a larger problem of living in a desolate social environment.
  • (16) "I watched this guy brushing off dirt from a skull in the most desolate landscape and right then I just knew," Rincón said of his first encounter with palaeontology.
  • (17) There was nothing to see for miles but sage-covered high desert, a landscape of stark beauty and eerie desolation.
  • (18) The contemporary state of the sub-discipline of endocrinology within the framework of internal medicine is generally considered rather desolate, but so far actual data were lacking.
  • (19) Howell said in July: "There are large uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly up in the north-east where there's plenty of room for fracking well away from anyone's residence where it can be conducted without any kind of threat to the rural environment."
  • (20) A subroutine called DESOL for the numerical solution of ordinary differential equations of the type arising in biological simulation problems is described.

Scourge


Definition:

  • (n.) A lash; a strap or cord; especially, a lash used to inflict pain or punishment; an instrument of punishment or discipline; a whip.
  • (n.) Hence, a means of inflicting punishment, vengeance, or suffering; an infliction of affliction; a punishment.
  • (n.) To whip severely; to lash.
  • (n.) To punish with severity; to chastise; to afflict, as for sins or faults, and with the purpose of correction.
  • (n.) To harass or afflict severely.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) King Salman of Saudi Arabia urged the redoubling of efforts to “eradicate this dangerous scourge and rid the world of its evils”.
  • (2) He added: "Those responsible for the murders of Fiona, Nicola, Mark and David Short are established criminals who are a scourge on our society.
  • (3) Afterwards, the scourge of corrupt politicians wagged his own clean finger in front of the cameras.
  • (4) But the British prime minister oozed schadenfreude with the result, received strong support from the Germans, the Dutch and the Scandinavians and looked pleased with the stalemate, portraying himself as the scourge of bloated Brussels, the guardian of the British and the European taxpayer.
  • (5) Francis, however, said the treatment hospital was a "shrine to human suffering" that emphasised the need to confront the scourge of drugs through education, justice and stronger social values.
  • (6) The former scourge of the establishment, then, became its friend.
  • (7) Lynch confirmation may 'be resolved' in 48 to 72 hours, says GOP senator Read more But the biggest Congressional headache of the year – a single cabinet nomination effectively hijacking the legislative calendar – has culminated in “a very sad irony”: Lynch has been one of the country’s premier guardians of victims of sex trafficking, and a tireless scourge of sex traffickers, a review of her record and conversations with current and former colleagues reveal.
  • (8) Late that night, Eliot Spitzer, New York governor and the scourge of Wall Street banks, called his closest aides.
  • (9) Shark finning, to serve Chinese diners, has also been a scourge.
  • (10) They include family formation and education and good jobs, and we’re going to bring them to the American people and finally end the scourge of poverty in this great land.” Although the conservative prescription is more familiar than the egalitarian diagnosis, such a full-throated emphasis on poverty would have marked a distinct change of tone for Republicans .
  • (11) In truth, zero-hours contracts (ZHC) aren’t the scourge of everyone’s existence.
  • (12) Despite stepped-up efforts to curb the scourge, the number of animals killed is around 100 higher than at the same point in 2013, a year which saw a record 1,004 deaths .
  • (13) Possibly one of the greatest contributions we can make to our patients' welfare is to share the knowledge that the risk of dying of breast cancer is considerably smaller than the risk of developing breast cancer; that the risk of early death from breast cancer rarely exceeds 10% in even the highest risk groups; and that the life styles most likely to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and other scourges of womankind are also those most likely to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.
  • (14) Even age-old scourges such as slavery continue to exist.
  • (15) A Home Office spokesperson said the department was already taking action to address key issues raised by the inspection report, saying: “This government is leading the world in confronting the scourge of modern slavery including through the groundbreaking Modern Slavery Act.
  • (16) In 2015, Barack Obama condemned “the scourge of antisemitism”.
  • (17) The marriage of two scourges, one old (mycobacterial disease) and one new (HIV), has presented an enormous challenge to the medical and public health communities, and has stirred renewed interest in mechanisms for immune control of mycobacterial infection.
  • (18) Like his colleague Tory MP Nicholas Soames, who in 2009 called the "scourge" of ragwort a national "shame", Benyon struck back, saying his critics were being "unnecessarily aggressive", and that he wasn't advocating ethnic cleansing of ragwort but that he wanted to deal with "a severe infestation of a poisonous plant".
  • (19) If anything, the economic crisis had made the scourge of unemployment even worse – on estates such as La Chêne Pointu, where more than half the population is under 25, joblessness tops 40%.
  • (20) We are going to be helping to put together a plan for them, so that they can start retaking territory that ISIL had taken over.” Iraq, which is forming a new government, and Muslim states with Sunni majorities, such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Turkey, would have to “step up” to confront the scourge of Sunni extremism, he said.