deserts

 
Pronunciation: /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)

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.