desolate
/ˈdɛs.ə.lət/verb
To empty a place of the people who live there.
Example sentences
- “The plague desolated whole villages in a single winter.”
- “Years of drought desolated the farming towns along the river.”
As an adjective, pronounced DES-uh-lit, it describes bleak, empty places or people stripped of comfort; that use is far more common than the verb.