Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Desertion

Desertion (de*zẽr"shun) , noun

[Latin desertio: compare French désertion.]

1.
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
2.
The state of being forsaken; desolation; as, the king in his desertion.
3.
Abandonment by God; spiritual despondency.
The spiritual agonies of a soul under desertion. — South