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claim to recompense, usually in a good sense; right to reward; merit. According to their deserts will I judge them. Ezek. vii. 27. Andronicus, surnamed Pius For many good and great deserts to Rome. Shak. His reputation falls far below his desert. A. Hamilton.

; especially, a soldier or a seaman who abandons the service without leave; one guilty of desertion.

Meritorious. [R.] Beau. & Fl.

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.…

Without desert. [R.]

Undeservedly. [R.] Beau. & Fl.

A deserted condition. [R.] "The desertness of the country." Udall.

A feminine deserter. Milton.

Ill desert. [R.] Addison.

Ill desert. [Obs.] Spenser.

rsake entirely ; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all connection with or concern on; to desert, as a person to whom one owes allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender. Hope was overthrown, yet could not be abandoned. I. Taylor.

Forsaken, deserted. "Your abandoned streams." Thomson.

The act of abandoning, or the state of being abandoned; total desertion; relinquishment. The abandonment of the independence of Europe. Burke.

An abandonment of what one has voluntarily professed; a total desertion of departure from one's faith, principles, or party; esp., the renunciation of a religious faith; as, Julian's apostasy from Christianity.

religious things. I am far from commending those ascetics that take up their quarters in deserts. Norris. Ascetic theology, the science which treats of the practice of the theological and moral virtues, and the counsels of perfection. Am. Cyc.

me the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe. Macaulay. The solitude of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind with awe -- the sense of our own littleness in some greater presence or power. C. J. Smith. To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.…

h of trust committed with dishonest purpose, as by running away with the ship, sinking or deserting her, etc., or by embezzling the cargo. Kent. Part.

who live in tents, and are scattered over Arabia, Syria, and northern Africa, esp. in the deserts. -- Bed"ou*in*ism (, n.

a part of, or connected with; to be appendant or related; to owe allegiance or service. A desert place belonging to . . . Bethsaids. Luke ix. 10. The mighty men which belonged to David. 1 Kings i. 8.

Lacking characteristics which give variety; as, a blank desert; a blank wall; destitute of interests, affections, hopes, etc.; as, to live a blank existence; destitute of sensations; as, blank unconsciousness.