desertion Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun withdrawing support or help despite allegiance or responsibility
    abandonment; defection.
    • his abandonment of his wife and children left them penniless
  2. noun the act of giving something up
    abandonment; forsaking.

WordNet

De*ser"tion noun
Etymology
L. desertio: cf. F. désertion.
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913