Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1951 (DOST Vol. II).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Desert, a. Also: dissert, des(e)art. [ME. desert (c 1300), e.m.E. desart, adj. use of Desert,p.p.] Desert, uninhabited; empty. c1420 Wynt. i. 544.
Betwene Ynde and Paradys Desert [W. dissert] landys mony lyis 1513 Doug. iv. i. 87.
Ȝondir [is] the desert region … , Ay full of thryst, in barrand Libya 1580 Antiq. Aberd. & B. III. 174.
Without the … commodite of salmound na … inhabitant of burght could weill be thair be desert solitude 1617 Drummond I. 145/109.
No place there is so desart, so alone 1623 Rec. Univ. Aberd. 282.
That the south east towr sould be pinitt and harllit with lyme … and the deseart windowis thairof to be drawine