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Where does the phrase just deserts come from?
Why do we say that someone has gotten their just deserts? Does this turn of phrase have anything to do with dessert (“a sweet food eaten at the end of a meal”) or desert (“a dry land with few plants and little rainfall”)? In fact, the phrase employs neither of these words. Instead, it uses a completely unrelated word that happens to be pronounced like the word for sweets and spelled like the one for a dry place: desert, meaning “reward or punishment deserved or earned by one’s qualities or acts.” This little-used noun is, as you might have guessed, related to the English verb deserve. It has nothing to do with arid, dry land, or with cookies and ice cream.
Examples of dessert in a Sentence
Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 6 June 2025
What is the significance of desserts in the Persian culture?
—Shivani Vora, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025
Like the canape course, the dessert has multiple elements.
—Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 June 2025
That’s not to say this inventive dessert doesn’t have a place in the world.
—Kaitlyn Rosati, New York Daily News, 4 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for dessert
Cite this Entry
“Dessert.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dessert. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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dessert
noun
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