How to Use desertion in a Sentence

desertion

noun
  • Vallow could face up to 14 years in prison for each count of desertion of a child.
    — CBS News, 5 Mar. 2020
  • Each year, a quarter of the Afghan armed forces had to be replaced due to desertion.
    — Tim Fernholz, Quartz, 17 Aug. 2021
  • She was charged with felony desertion of the children, police said in a statement.
    — CBS News, 24 Feb. 2020
  • Also, some draft-age men have moved abroad, while desertions have undermined the army.
    — arkansasonline.com, 13 Feb. 2025
  • The decision was a hedge against desertion or the selling of weapons on the black market.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 19 Aug. 2021
  • The island itself has an air of desertion but not of extreme despair.
    — Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 14 May 2018
  • They were charged with desertion of a child and abandonment of an animal.
    — Liam Quinn, People.com, 8 Apr. 2025
  • The relative desertion of the streets shows the strategy has paid off.
    — Brady Knox, The Washington Examiner, 4 Jan. 2026
  • She was charged with two felony counts of child desertion, along with three misdemeanors, and held on $5 million bond.
    — Allie Yang, Maryellen Resendez, Gwen Gowen, ABC News, 2 Mar. 2021
  • Bergdahl faces up to life in prison on charges of desertion and misbehavior in front of the enemy.
    — James Hohmann, Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2017
  • Sabogal was arrested and charged with 1 count of child neglect and two counts of desertion of a child.
    — Nikiya Carrero, CBS News, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Refusing to serve or desertion is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
    — Robert Hart, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2022
  • Ukraine appears to be facing a higher rate of desertion than Russia.
    — Olivier Kempf, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
  • He was sentenced by a military judge to 12 months in prison for desertion and one month on each of the four other counts.
    — Kayla McCormick, NBC News, 22 Sep. 2024
  • But the foreknowledge doesn’t offer much comfort when the song confirms the desertion.
    — Hanif Abdurraqib, The New Yorker, 22 Mar. 2023
  • In addition to her two child desertion charges, Garrett was booked on the same gun and drug charges as Williams.
    — Emily Lane, NOLA.com, 14 June 2017
  • None of this seems destined to end well; the opening sequence is both tense and intense, riffing on old-school fears of parental loss or desertion.
    — Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 8 July 2021
  • Among the charges Vallow faces are two felony counts of desertion and non-support of dependent children.
    — Ella Torres, ABC News, 4 Mar. 2020
  • This time, he was arrested for desertion, escaped and went to New York to his uncle's farm.
    — Mary Jane Brewer, cleveland.com, 9 Apr. 2018
  • Bergdahl pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy and had faced up to life in prison.
    — idahostatesman, 3 Nov. 2017
  • But Tremlett also makes note of those who used the chaos of the war to commit crimes or who were executed for desertion.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Putin said Ukraine’s armed forces had a grave lack of manpower and desertions, while Russia had enough soldiers.
    — CNN Money, 2 Oct. 2025
  • During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, desertions and courts-martial were rare, even after years of stalemate.
    — Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, 3 Feb. 2025
  • But it’s been plagued by desertions in recent years as the oil-rich nation’s economy went belly up under Maduro’s watch.
    — Bloomberg, The Mercury News, 31 July 2024
  • The biggest challenge of my time there was the Bowe Bergdahl desertion and rescue attempts that followed.
    — Jason Hoffman, The Enquirer, 27 Aug. 2021
  • Bergdahl faces up to life in prison on charges of desertion and misbehavior before the enemy after pleading guilty to the charges last week.
    — Bloomberg.com, 23 Oct. 2017
  • Now Kelley faces charges of unlawful desertion of a child across county lines and child neglect – both third-degree felonies.
    — Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 21 Nov. 2020
  • But the opposition campaigns were lackluster due to infighting and desertions in the run-up to the vote.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Oct. 2019
  • Mobilization has stalled, with brigades undermanned, and desertion in the ranks is a mounting problem.
    — Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2025
  • Many Kurds cite the Iraqi forces' desertion as a reason why the Peshmerga fighters can’t give back the city.
    — Time, 24 Sep. 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'desertion.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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