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.

Abandonment by God; spiritual despondency.

To abandon without reason and with no intention of returning, like spouse abandonment.

The culpable abandonment of a state, of a stable situation, the obligations of which one had freely accepted.