deserter

[ dih-zur-ter ]

noun

1. a soldier or draftee who leaves or runs away from service or duty with the intention of never returning:

   Deserters from the rebel army tell of low morale among its remaining fighters.

2. a person who fails to uphold a cause or who abandons someone else, especially in violation of a promise or obligation:

   Some of those remaining in the home country view emigrants living abroad as deserters from their mother culture.

   A family deserter is one who can but will not support a spouse or dependents.

Other Words From

• pre·de·sert·er noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of deserter¹

desert ²( def ) + -er ¹( def )

Example Sentences

The temperature has hit the mid-80s, and the desert is squeezing hydration from our bodies.

From Washington Post

Shafer Canyon Road rises from the Utah desert like a coiled snake, six switchbacks and 1,200 vertical feet of sandy, sunbaked malice poised between us and lunch, beers and one final killer view.

From Washington Post

Kyler Murray’s heave through the desert sky and into DeAndre Hopkins’s padlock-strength hands was an unbelievable play that, with perspective, only grows in its improbability.

From Washington Post

It won’t be widely flown for several months as airlines must first train pilots, inspect jets emerging from long desert sojourns and complete the FAA-mandated repairs.

From Fortune

Instead, he’s more like an oasis in the desert, there to give Ayton and Booker the fuel they need to reach another level — and, if all goes according to plan, help take the Suns back to the playoffs in the process.

From FiveThirtyEight

The last deserter to be executed had been during the Civil War.

From The Daily Beast

Somebody on Twitter made a big deal out of the fact that I put the word “deserter” in quotes.

From The Daily Beast

People can believe he is a deserter all they want, and maybe he is.

From The Daily Beast

Republicans are hitting the pipe big time on the ‘deserter’—and their creepy bottom line is that he should have been left to die.

From The Daily Beast

And that the truth is: Bergdahl was a deserter, and soldiers from his own unit died trying to track him down.

From The Daily Beast

The wife must live with him, and a refusal on her part to live in the home provided by him would constitute her a deserter.

From Project Gutenberg

As a line beneath the title explains, the tale concerns a matrimonial deserter.

From Project Gutenberg

When the captain was told what had taken place, he saw that the British were trying to make trouble about the Irish deserter.

From Project Gutenberg

For that very night a British sailor came on board the Constitution, who said he was a deserter from the Havana.

From Project Gutenberg

A deserter piloted the detachment safely over the torpedoes which had been planted in front of them.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• defector
• escapee
• lawbreaker