deserter

noun

de·​sert·​er di-ˈzər-tər 

plural deserters

: a person who deserts

… the deserter of his father in his last days, betrayer of his brother in his captivity …

—Amy Kelly

especially : a member of a military force who abandons service without leave

a wartime deserter

But now that Anderson has been AWOL for more than 30 days, he is known in the U.S. military as a deserter, facing the possibility of years in jail.

—Daniel Eisenberg

At a prison camp for German army deserters, Herold ordered the execution of more than 100 soldiers.

—Michael Phillips

Synonyms

• apostate
• defector
• recreant
• renegade

Examples of deserter in a Sentence

we had orders to find and capture the deserters before they could reveal our location

Recent Examples on the Web

Knight, a Mississippi farmer and Confederate deserter, led a rebellion against the Confederacy during the American Civil War. —Travis Bean, Forbes, 2 Nov. 2024

Because of the security risks faced by Russian deserters, pseudonyms are used throughout. —Sarah A. Topol, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2024

Al Shabaab has issued a fatwa calling for the murder of any deserters, and a number of them have been shot and killed in the Majengo slum. —Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens, Foreign Affairs, 10 Jan. 2013

Blauvelt, who worked as a U.S. Army recruiter in Greenville County at the time of the killing, was classified as a deserter shortly after, according to the U.S. Marshals. —Kc Baker, Peoplemag, 20 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

desert entry 3 + -er entry 2, after Latin dēsertor and French déserteur

First Known Use

1631, in the meaning defined above