as in traitors
a person who abandons a cause or organization usually without right
we had orders to find and capture the deserters before they could reveal our location
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Recent Examples of deserters
Harry Truman granted amnesty to certain World War II deserters, while Jimmy Carter granted pardons to hundreds of thousands of individuals who dodged the draft during the Vietnam War.
—
Stewart Ulrich, The Conversation, 15 Dec. 2025
More important, though, is the fact that the judge who posited that hordes of deserters could follow Vovchenko’s example seems to be overstepping his role.
—Air Mail, 25 Oct. 2025
Language purists like to remind anyone who will listen that decimation actually means the slaughter of one in ten people, and was the military punishment wielded by the Roman army against deserters and mutineers.
—Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
Despite opposition to busing, particularly among White families who comprised much of Louisville's Catholic population, Archbishop McDonough vowed in 1974 that his schools would not become the home of public school deserters.
—Krista Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal, 4 Sep. 2025
Stewart Ulrich, The Conversation, 15 Dec. 2025
More important, though, is the fact that the judge who posited that hordes of deserters could follow Vovchenko’s example seems to be overstepping his role.
—Air Mail, 25 Oct. 2025
Language purists like to remind anyone who will listen that decimation actually means the slaughter of one in ten people, and was the military punishment wielded by the Roman army against deserters and mutineers.
—Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
Despite opposition to busing, particularly among White families who comprised much of Louisville's Catholic population, Archbishop McDonough vowed in 1974 that his schools would not become the home of public school deserters.
—Krista Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deserters
Noun
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The play will tell a story inspired by the program’s format, in which a group of faithfuls try to root out the traitors, and will be staged at an unnamed London venue.—
Max Goldbart,
Deadline,
26 Jan. 2026
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Proceed with caution, faithful readers… The die is cast — the traitors and faithfuls have been chosen, and their clothes are doing the slaying (all puns intended).—
Jamie Allison Sanders,
PEOPLE,
16 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Meanwhile, rebels in 2024 overthrew Syria’s Bashar Assad after a yearslong, bloody war in which Iran backed his rule.—
Jon Gambrell,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Jan. 2026
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The Season 2 finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians saw Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Grover (Aryan Simhadri) mobilize the rest of the demigods against Luke (Charlie Bushnell) and his ragtag crew of rebels working to resurrect Kronos.—
Katie Campione,
Deadline,
24 Jan. 2026
Noun
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But a few renegades creatively defected across the pond, looking instead at America for inspiration.—
Leah Dolan,
CNN Money,
23 Sep. 2025
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VCs raining money on said brilliant renegades, despite signals that the market wasn’t quite mature enough and money was being lit on fire?—
Cortney Harding,
Forbes.com,
25 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Those efforts, combined with security operations against both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias, weakened al-Qaeda between 2007 and 2009, allowing al-Maliki to consolidate power.—
Miranda Jeyaretnam,
Time,
28 Jan. 2026
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Israel — home to more Holocaust survivors than any other country — marks its remembrance day, Yom HaShoah, on the anniversary of the April 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, emphasizing the heroism of the Jewish insurgents who resisted the Nazi terror.—
Vanessa Gera,
Chicago Tribune,
27 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Laughter, gasps and applause are not uncommon, according to defectors and foreign visitors who have attended such events.—
Will Ripley,
CNN Money,
21 Jan. 2026
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High-profile defectors, including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia, are in the twilight of their careers and unlikely to return.—
Edgar Thompson,
The Orlando Sentinel,
14 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Deserters.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deserters. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
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