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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Tehran’s streets are deserted Tehran’s streets have been largely deserted with people sheltering during airstrikes.—
Jon Gambrell,
Chicago Tribune,
2 Mar. 2026 -
Within minutes, the square was deserted.—
Tal Shalev,
CNN Money,
2 Mar. 2026
Verb
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But the island seems as forlorn and abandoned as any time since the fall of the Soviet Union.—
Patrick Oppmann,
CNN Money,
7 Mar. 2026
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Friday’s race was a replacement for the downhill five weeks ago at Swiss resort Crans-Montana, abandoned after Vonn crashed and tore the ACL in her left knee.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
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In a further escalation of tensions with Kyiv, Hungary's parliament on Tuesday passed a resolution giving the government the green light to oppose Ukraine's path to joining the European Union and reject any initiatives to supply Ukraine with weapons or funding.—
JUSTIN SPIKE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,
Arkansas Online,
11 Mar. 2026
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On Tuesday, officials representing Seligman urged the council to reject the compensation agreements and instead sell the property to Seligman.—
David Garrick,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
11 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Designating the company a supply chain risk cuts off Anthropic's defense work using an authority that was designed to prevent foreign adversaries from harming national security systems.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
10 Mar. 2026
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Others coordinated to use their consecutive time slots to read off of the same script, starting where the person before them hand been cut off.—
Rachel Royster,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
10 Mar. 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 12 Mar. 2026.
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