as in to desert
to leave (a cause or party) often in order to take up another
soldiers defected from the rebel army en masse as the failure of their cause became apparent
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for defect (from)
Verb
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The venue compound was largely deserted after three days of large crowds at the event.—
Aditya Soni,
USA Today,
19 Feb. 2026 -
In 2020, CalGEM ordered AllenCo to plug the wells after if determined the company had essentially deserted the site, leaving the wells unplugged and in an unsafe condition.—
Tony Briscoe,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Feb. 2026
Verb
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All three figures were once associated with the regime’s internal movement for incremental reform; all three long ago abandoned that stance to advocate the wholesale transformation of the system instead.—
Arash Azizi,
The Atlantic,
20 Feb. 2026
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Despite the relatively recent creation of the Government Oversight Committee, the legislature has largely abandoned its oversight role.—
Mark Pazniokas,
Hartford Courant,
20 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected a Gary man’s bid last week to cut his sentence for attacking multiple women.—
Meredith Colias-Pete,
Chicago Tribune,
17 Feb. 2026
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Like in the case of Adam Hart, who rejected a digital verdict in order to protect a patient’s lungs, the ultimate value of the nurse in the age of AI may be not their ability to follow the prompt but their willingness to override it.—
Hilke Schellmann,
Scientific American,
17 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Washington has upped pressure in a bid to replace Havana’s communist regime, cutting off oil shipments and, by extension, the economy.—
Jeronimo Gonzalez,
semafor.com,
17 Feb. 2026
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First responders cut off her camo shorts to care for her that day, and a photo of the shorts was shown in court.—
Eric Levenson,
CNN Money,
17 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Defect (from).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defect%20%28from%29. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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