De*ser"tion (?), n. [L. desertio: cf. F. d'esertion.]
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. | 
