Right. That's the sense (solitude) of "desert" in Tacitus's famous quip about the Romans: "they make a desert and call it peace".

In verb and adjective form anything can be deserted, a husband deserting his wife, a deserted village.

In noun form I've heard of things like food deserts to describe urban area without grocery or restaurants. Also places like Antartica are sometimes described as deserts. Also ocean deserts to describe areas without fish.

Antarctica is a desert by the strict "low precipitation" definition. The Dry Valleys are some of the driest places on Earth.