derogatory, a. disparaging, detracting.

descendants, n. pl. progeny, posterity, offspring.

descent, n. descension; incursion, raid, foray; derivation, lineage, extraction, parentage, birth; declivity, slope, decline; dismounting; bathos; escarpment, scarp.

describe, v. delineate, depict.

description, n. delineation, depiction, portrayal; cla.s.s, species, sort, character.

desecrate, v. profane, pollute, secularize.

desecration, n. profanation, secularization.

desert, n. merit, meed, due.

desert, n. wilderness, wild. a.s.sociated Words: oasis, mirage, caravan, caravansary, eremic.

desert, a. waste, unproductive, barren, desolate, infertile, inarable. Antonyms: fertile, arable.

desert, v. forsake, abandon, leave, run away from.

deserted, a. forsaken, desolate, abandoned, derelict.

deserter, n. renegade, turncoat, delinquent, backslider, apostate, recreant, poltroon, rat, traitor.

desertion, n. abandonment. Antonyms: See faithfulness.

desert wind. simoon.

deserve, v. merit.

deserved, a. merited, condign. Antonyms: undeserved, unmerited.

deserving, a. meritprious, worthy, meedful. Antonyms: undeserving, unworthy.

design, n. sketch, draught, outline, plan; scheme, intention, purpose, project, intent, aim. a.s.sociated Words: teleology, teleologist, teleological.

designing, n. artful, wily, crafty, subtle, politic, Machiavelian disingenuous. Antonyms: See undesigning.

desire, n. longing, craving, will, aspiration, hankering, appetency, cupidity, impulse; request, pet.i.tion, quest, entreaty; velleity; pruriency. Antonyms: apathy, antipathy, aversion, inappetency.

a.s.sociated Words: desiderative, desideratum, orectic, optative.

desire, v. want, crave, long for, l.u.s.t, covet, yearn, aspire, request.

desolate, a. dreary, waste; broken-hearted, inconsolable, solitary; devastated.

desolate, v. devastate, depredate, despoil, sack, lay waste.

despair, n. hopelessness, desperation, inconsolableness.

desperate, a. irretrievable, hopeless, incurable, remediless, outrageous, atrocious, monstrous, heinous.

desperation, n. despair, hopelessness, recklessness.

despicable, a. contemptible, abject.

despise, v. contemn, disdain.

despiteful, a. malicious, spiteful, resentful.

despondency, n. melancholy, depression, dejection.

despondent, a. disheartened, discouraged, dejected, depressed.

despot, n. tyrant, autocrat.

despotic, a. autocratic, tyrannical, absolute, despotical.

despotism, n. absolutism, autocracy, tyranny.

destne, v. doom, preordain, appoint, foredoom.

destiny, n. fate, doom, lot, fortune.

dest.i.tute, a. devoid, deficient, lacking; needy, very poor.

dest.i.tution, n. privation, need, want, poverty, deficiency, indigence.

destroy, v. annihilate, undo, demolish, raze, desolate, devour, sack, dismantle, eradicate, exterminate, ruin. Antonyms: conserve, preserve, perpetuate, spare.

destroyer, n. iconoclast, annihilator, vandal, hun, destructionist, Apollyon.

destruction, n. annihilation, demolition, eradication, ruin, perdition, havoc, vandalism, subversion, desolation, devastation, iconoclasm. Antonyms: conservation preservation, perpetuation.

destructive, a. ruinous, iconoclastic, vandal, vandalic, internecine, deleterious, pernicious, annihilative.

desultory, a. fitful, irregular, cursory, unsystematic.

detach, v. disconnect, disjoin, sever, disunite, isolate, segregate.

detachment, n. disconnection, separation, disunion, isolation, segregation.

detail, v. particularize, enumerate.

details, n. pl. minutiae, particulars.

detention, n. restraint, custody, confinement, arrest.

deter, v. hinder, prevent, dissuade, restrain.