Definition of "desertion" []

• The act or an instance of deserting. (noun)
• The state of being deserted. (noun)
• Law Willful abandonment of one's spouse or children or both without their consent and with the intention of forsaking all legal obligations to them. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Never was the _honour_, the _principles_, the policy of a nation so grossly abused as in the desertion of those men, who are now exposed to _every punishment_ that _desertion_ and _poverty_ can inflict, _because they were not rebels_. ""
• "The term desertion is also applied to a cleric's abandonment of his benefice, whether it be residential or non-residential."
• "The reason is plain: he was, so to speak, of two parties, yet of neither: the one could not forgive his early aspirations for liberty, uttered in imperishable verse; the other could not pardon what they called his desertion of their cause, when he saw that England was willing to do, and was doing, justice to Ireland."