desolate vs empty

desolate

adj
  • Barren and lifeless. 

  • Made unfit for habitation or use because of neglect, destruction etc. 

  • Dismal or dreary. 

  • Deserted and devoid of inhabitants. 

  • Sad, forlorn and hopeless. 

verb
  • To devastate or lay waste somewhere. 

  • To abandon or forsake something. 

  • To deprive of inhabitants. 

  • To make someone sad, forlorn and hopeless. 

empty

adj
  • Having nothing to carry, emptyhanded; unburdened. 

  • Containing no elements (as of a string, array, or set), opposed to being null (having no valid value). 

  • Not pregnant; not producing offspring when expected to do so during the breeding season. 

  • Destitute of reality, or real existence; unsubstantial. 

  • Destitute of, or lacking, sense, knowledge, or courtesy. 

  • Unable to satisfy; hollow; vain. 

  • Destitute of effect, sincerity, or sense; said of language. 

  • Devoid of content; containing nothing or nobody; vacant. 

verb
  • To make empty; to void; to remove the contents of. 

  • Of a river, duct, etc: to drain or flow toward an ultimate destination. 

noun
  • A container, especially a bottle, whose contents have been used up, leaving it empty. 

How often have the words desolate and empty occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )