The act of breathing out; exhalation, The act of coming to a close; termination, That which is expired; matter breathed forth; that which is produced by breathing out, as a sound

A deserving; that which makes one deserving of reward or punishment; merit or demerit; good conferred, or evil inflicted, which merits an equivalent return_ as, to reward or punish men according to their deserts, arid land with little or no vegetation, That which is deserved; the reward or the punishment justly due; claim to recompense, usually in a good sense; right to reward; merit, intransitive verb_ To abandon a service without leave; to quit military service without permission, before the expiration of one's term; to abscond, transitive verb_ To leave (especially something which one should stay by and support); to leave in the lurch; to abandon; to forsake; -- implying blame, except sometimes when used of localities, adjective_ Of or pertaining to a desert; forsaken; without life or cultivation; unproductive; waste; barren; wild; desolate; solitary, (Bot) the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and apparently unproductive place