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ng from military or naval service. Such a resignation would have seemed to his superior a desertion or a reproach. Bancroft.

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.

Numerical loss caused by death, wounds, discharge, or desertion. Casualty ward, A ward in a hospital devoted to the treatment of injuries received by accident.

cause to which one is bound by allegiance or duty, or to which one has attached himself; desertion; failure in duty; a falling away; apostasy; backsliding. "Defection and falling away from God." Sir W. Raleigh. The general defection of the whole realm. Sir J. Davies.

The desertion by a party to any pleading of the ground taken by him in his last antecedent pleading, and the adoption of another. Bouvier.

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

ll, aught, anything, etc. The writer will do what she please for all me. Spectator. God's desertion shall, for aught he knows, the next minute supervene. Dr. H. More. For anything that legally appears to the contrary, it may be a contrivance to fright us. Swift.

tentionally without just cause or excuse; as, a malicious act. Malicious abandonment, the desertion of a wife or husband without just cause. Burrill. -- Malicious mischief (Law), malicious injury to the property of another; -- an offense at common law. Wharton. -- Malicious prosecution or arrest (Law), a wanton prose…

elves. Shak. Mutiny act (Law), an English statute reënacted annually to punish mutiny and desertion. Wharton.

An escape; a secret or unexpected desertion; as, to give one the slip. Shak.

pecies, most of which are characterized often used as an emblem of sorrow, desolation, or desertion. "A wreath of willow to show my forsaken plight." Sir W. Scott. Hence, a lover forsaken by, or having lost, the person beloved, is said to wear the willow. And I must wear the willow garland For him that's dead or false…