desertion (dezershon)

[= F. désertion = Sp. desercion = Pg. deserção = It. deserzione, In an evil hour for his fame and fortunes he [Fox]... abandoned his connection with Pitt, who never forgave this desertion . Macaulay , William Pitt. 2. The state of being deserted or forsaken. [Rare.] The desertion in which we lived, the simple benches, the unhewn rafters, the naked walls, all told me what it Godwin , St. Leon, I. 211. was I had done. 3. The state of being forsaken by God; spiritual despondency. (Not now. in use.] Christ hears and sympathizes with the spiritual agonies of a soul under desertion , or the pre ures of some stinging affliction. South . 4. In law, a wilful abandonment of an employment or a duty, in violation of a legal or moral obligation. Bigelow, Ch. J. In the law of divorce, the wilful withdrawal of one of the married parties from the other, or the voluntary refusal of one to renew a suspended cohabitation, without justification in either the consent or the wrongful conduct of the other. Bishop. Desertion of the diet, in Scots law, the abandoning judicially, in a criminal proce , of proceedings on the particular libel in virtue of which a panel has been brought into court.