Definitions for: Desertion

[n] withdrawing support or help despite allegiance or responsibility; "his abandonment of his wife and children left them penniless"
[n] the act of giving something up

Webster (1913) Definition: De*ser"tion, n. [L. desertio: cf. F. d['e]sertion.]
1. The act of deserting or forsaking; abandonment of a
service, a cause, a party, a friend, or any post of duty;
the quitting of one's duties willfully and without right;
esp., an absconding from military or naval service.

Such a resignation would have seemed to his superior
a desertion or a reproach. --Bancroft.

2. The state of being forsaken; desolation; as, the king in
his desertion.

3. Abandonment by God; spiritual despondency.

The spiritual agonies of a soul under desertion.
--South.

Synonyms: abandonment, defection, forsaking

See Also: abscondment, absence without leave, apostasy, bolt, decampment, deviationism, exposure, rejection, tergiversation, unauthorized absence, withdrawal

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