Desertion

Abandonment; the abandonment of a duty or of a person as to whom the deserter is charged with a duty; as desertion by a seaman, or a soldier, or by a husband of his wife. As a cause for divorce, is an unwarranted departure from the conjugal relation, intending not to return. The precise elements vary according to the statutes. In only one or two states is mere abstinence from sexual intercourse regarded as desertion. The voluntary separation of one of the married parties from the other, or the voluntary refusal to renew a suspended cohabitation, without justification either in the consent or the wrongful conduct of the other.

122 111. App. 225.