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desert

/dɪˈzɜːrt//dɪˈzɜːt/·verb
to leave a person, post, or duty you were bound to, especially treacherously
Fig. 1 — I watch a field camp — tents, a tank, a field gun, a lantern on its pole, a wire fence with a torn gap in it.
01Definition

To desert someone or something is to leave a post or bond you were duty-bound to keep — and the doing of it is a betrayal. It comes from Latin deserere, 'to un-join' (de- plus serere, 'to link'), so the word breaks a tie that was holding. Soldiers desert their posts, a parent deserts a family, supporters desert a failing cause. Where to abandon can be neutral and to forsake is sorrowful, desert carries blame: there was a duty with a claim on you, and you slipped out from under it.

02In use
  • iThe soldiers who deserted their posts were hunted down and court-martialed.
  • iiHe deserted his family one winter and was never heard from again.
  • iiiAs the company faltered, even its most loyal customers began to desert it.
03Collocations
  • desert a post
  • desert one's family
  • desert a sinking ship
  • desert the cause

Family deserter (noun) · desertion (noun)

04Relations

=abandon, forsake, betray, quit, leave

≠support, keep, defend, stand by

05Compared
PairThe difference
desert vs abandonsimply leave something behind → abandon; break a duty you were sworn to keep → desert (a betrayal).
desert vs forsakea sworn duty broken → desert; a cherished bond renounced → forsake.
desert vs give uplet down something you owed loyalty to → desert; simply stop trying → give up.
desert vs keepbreak away from a bond you were bound to → desert; hold to it → keep.
desert vs leave behinda duty treacherously broken → desert; something that just doesn't come along → leave behind.

Also compared with pursue, relinquish

06TOEFL & IELTS

Always carries blame — a duty or loyalty broken (military desertion, deserting a family or cause). Noun forms: deserter, desertion. Watch the homographs: the verb desert (/dɪˈzɜːrt/, to leave) versus the noun desert (/ˈdezərt/, dry land) and dessert (/dɪˈzɜːrt/, the sweet course). Contrast desert (a duty owed) with abandon (broad) and forsake (cherished, literary).

07Asked
What is the difference between desert and dessert?
Dessert is the sweet course at the end of a meal; desert covers everything else — dry land (the noun) and abandoning a duty (the verb). The spelling tell is the double s: dessert has two, and the memory hook is that you always want a second helping of the sweet one. One s, and you are in the sand.
Is it 'just deserts' or 'just desserts'?
'Just deserts' — one s, however wrong it looks. This deserts is a near-extinct noun meaning 'what is deserved', from the same root as deserve, and it survives almost nowhere else. So getting your just deserts has nothing to do with pudding; the pudding spelling 'just desserts' is one of English's most common mistakes.
How do you pronounce desert — the noun and the verb?
They split by stress. The noun (dry land) is DEZ-ert, stress on the first syllable. The verb (to abandon) is dih-ZURT, stress on the second — and that verb is a perfect homophone of dessert. So 'they desert the desert' is said dih-ZURT the DEZ-ert: same letters, two different words.
Why do 'desert' and 'dessert' get mixed up?
Because sound and spelling pull in opposite directions. The verb desert and the sweet dessert are perfect homophones (both dih-ZURT), so the ear cannot separate them — yet they look different on the page. Meanwhile the sand desert looks almost identical to the verb but is said differently (DEZ-ert). The eye and the ear each mislead you, just about different pairs.
What does 'desert a sinking ship' mean?
To abandon a person, cause, or organization the moment it starts to fail — and 'rats deserting a sinking ship' sharpens the contempt, since rats were said to flee a doomed vessel first. It captures desert's whole charge: not just leaving, but leaving a bond precisely when loyalty was owed most.
What does 'desertion' mean?
The formal noun for deserting, strongest in two settings: military desertion — abandoning your post or unit without leave, a serious offence — and, in some legal systems, desertion as a ground for divorce, meaning a spouse who leaves and stays gone. A deserter is the person who does it. Both keep the word's core of a duty broken.
What is the difference between desert and abandon?
Both mean leaving for good, but desert adds blame — a duty or loyalty betrayed, as the sentry slipping through the wire does in the scene above. The full contrast, with both animated scenes, is on the abandon vs desert page in the 'Compared' list above, alongside this verb's other pairings.