Crossword clues for desertion
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Desertion \De*ser"tion\ (d[-e]*z[~e]r"sh[u^]n), n. [L. desertio: cf. F. d['e]sertion.]
-
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. The state of being forsaken; desolation; as, the king in his desertion.
-
Abandonment by God; spiritual despondency.
The spiritual agonies of a soul under desertion.
--South.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, from Middle French désertion (early 15c.), from Late Latin desertionem (nominative desertio) "a forsaking, abandoning," noun of action from past participle stem of Latin deserere (see desert (v.)).
Wiktionary
n. The act of desert.
WordNet
n. withdrawing support or help despite allegiance or responsibility; "his abandonment of his wife and children left them penniless" [syn: abandonment, defection]
the act of giving something up [syn: abandonment, forsaking]
Wikipedia
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. In contrast, Unauthorized Absence (UA) or Absence Without Leave (US: AWOL; Commonwealth: AWL) refers to a temporary absence.
Desertion is a 2005 novel by Abdulrazak Gurnah.
Usage examples of "desertion".
At any rate, the punishment, if it really took place, did not prove very effectual, for some fifty Brunswickers deserted in the course of the next five months, and the loss of men from desertion during the journey to Virginia was heavy.
But they dried their socks and smoked their evening pipes with much the same gusto as on their former visit, though one or two bold spirits speculated on desertion and the possibility of crossing the unexplored Rockies to the east, and thence, by the Mackenzie Valley, of gaining their old stamping grounds in the Chippewyan country.
The frontline infantry divisions were the most heavily depleted by desertions.
In postwar interrogations of Iraqi soldiers and officers, being without adequate food and water in the middle of the desert stood out as the first among various reasons that their frontline divisions collapsed in a mass of desertions, defections, and surrenders.
The last bill of this session that had the good fortune to succeed, was brought in for punishing mutiny and desertion of officers and soldiers in the service of the East India company, and for the punishment of offences committed in the East Indies and the island of St.
His extreme caution did not, however, escape the censure of the more rigid Christians, who lamented, or the reproaches of his personal enemies, who insulted, a conduct which they considered as a pusillanimous and criminal desertion of the most sacred duty.
De Vargas was the only one who earnestly opposed the desertion as inhuman and dishonorable, and Orellana punished him by abandoning him in the wilderness and sailing away without him.
She had always resented my being on such friendly terms with her neighbours, and now that I was fairly leaving Grettan for Quondong, she seemed to take it as a case of desertion to the enemy.
Thou saidst the truth to her, that she is capricious for she imposeth conditions that man cannot fulfill, and delinquency is punished by desertion.
He remembered the former desertion of the Tyrolese, the recent villany of the solicitor, and recollected the remarks he had made upon the disposition and character of his valet, which evinced him a fit companion for the other two.
Such discords, and particularly those betwixt Richard and Philip of France, created disputes and obstacles which impeded every active measure proposed by the heroic though impetuous Richard, while the ranks of the Crusaders were daily thinned, not only by the desertion of individuals, but of entire bands, headed by their respective feudal leaders, who withdrew from a contest in which they had ceased to hope for success.
Iraqi divisions by their authorized personnel strength and then factored in rough estimates of desertions to arrive at the total numbers of Iraqi personnel in the theater.
The regular army armored and mechanized divisions suffered fewer desertions than the infantry.
The Republican Guards suffered least from desertions and were closest to their authorized strength when the ground war began.
March 11, 1991, declassified 1998, provides a useful snapshot of desertions from selected Iraqi divisions.