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
-
For the San Diego County deserts west winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts 45 to 55 mph, locally up to 60 near the mountain foothills.—
CA Weather Bot,
Sacbee.com,
14 May 2026 -
Succulents are native to desert climates, which can be very hot during the day, and very cold at night.—
Peg Aloi,
The Spruce,
12 May 2026
Verb
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As those commitments are abandoned, there’s a financial price to pay, including more than $9 billion of write-downs for Honda, which made its first operating loss in the company’s history.—
Jonathan M. Gitlin,
ArsTechnica,
15 May 2026
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Famously, many migration projects end up in some sort of failure—behind schedule, over budget, incomplete or abandoned.—
Thomas Berndorfer,
Forbes.com,
15 May 2026
Verb
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Libby Savill, the deputy chair of Southbank Centre, outright rejected the allegations.—
News Desk,
Artforum,
19 May 2026
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That could be fine if people knew when to rely on AIs and when to reject them.—
Gautam Mukunda,
Mercury News,
19 May 2026
Verb
-
Change the menu—cut off their food sources.—
Arricca Elin SanSone,
Southern Living,
19 May 2026
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Iran's near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz has thrown global oil trade into disarray, cutting off importers from around one-fifth of the global oil supply that traversed the waterway before the war.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
18 May 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 20 May. 2026.
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