DESERTER (deserter)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: deserter   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does deserter mean? 

• DESERTER (noun)
  The noun DESERTER has 2 senses:

1. a disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.

2. a person who abandons their duty (as on a military post)

  Familiarity information: DESERTER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESERTER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A disloyal person who betrays or deserts his cause or religion or political party or friend etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

apostate; deserter; ratter; recreant; renegade; turncoat

Hypernyms ("deserter" is a kind of...):

quitter (a person who gives up too easily)

Derivation:

desert (leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch)

desert (desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who abandons their duty (as on a military post)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

defector; deserter

Hypernyms ("deserter" is a kind of...):

offender; wrongdoer (a person who transgresses moral or civil law)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deserter"):

deviationist (an ideological defector from the party line (especially from orthodox communism))

draft dodger; draft evader (someone who is drafted and illegally refuses to serve)

renegade (someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw)

walk-in (an operative who initiates his own defection (usually to a hostile country) for political asylum)

Derivation:

desert (leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch)

desert (desert (a cause, a country or an army), often in order to join the opposing cause, country, or army)

 Context examples 

But he put the Ghost through her best paces so as to get between the deserters and the land.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He broke out suddenly while clasping me in his arms—Cruel, cruel deserter!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Procuring their rifles, they opened fire in a leisurely manner, upon the deserters.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I doubted that she had heard, and I resolved to prevent her seeing the brutality I knew would follow the capture of the deserters.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)