lexicow

desert

/dɪˈzɜːrt//dɪˈzɜːt/·verb
I watch a camp at night — tents, a tank, a field gun, a lantern on its pole, a wire fence with a torn gap in it. A soldier set to hold the line steals low across the ground in a crouch, ducks through the gap in the wire, and slips out into the dark until nothing of him is left. The lantern keeps burning over the empty post. The line that was his to hold is open now, and he has stolen away through it.
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Definition

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.

Examples

  • The soldiers who deserted their posts were hunted down and court-martialed.
  • He deserted his family one winter and was never heard from again.
  • As the company faltered, even its most loyal customers began to desert it.

Collocations

desert a post·desert one's family·desert a sinking ship·desert the cause

Synonyms

abandon·forsake·betray·quit·leave

Antonyms

support·keep·defend·stand by

Word family

deserter (noun)·desertion (noun)

In TOEFL & 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).