deserts

deserts |dɪˈzəːts | ▶plural noun what a person deserves with regard to reward or (more usually ) punishment: the penal system fails to punish offenders in accordance with their deserts. PHRASES get (or receive ) one's just deserts receive what one deserves, especially appropriate punishment: those who caused great torment to others rarely got their just deserts. ORIGIN Middle English: via Old French desert, from deservir ‘serve well ’ (see deserve ). usage: If a person gets their just deserts they get what they deserve. Deserts here is related to deserve, and is spelled with one -s- in the middle; a dessert is a sweet course eaten at the end of a meal. The -ss- spelling in the sense ‘what a person deserves ’ is regarded as an error, although in the Oxford English Corpus it is almost as common as the correct spelling.