These verbs all mean to depart from a person, place, pursuit, party or principle. Leave is the most general word in the group and is relatively free of the connotations that cling to the others. It is often used non-committally to indicate a straightforward physical departure: he left his home-town and moved to the big city. Leave in itself gives no hint as to the motives behind or consequences of a departure. One person may leave it merely to seek a milder climate. Leave may also refer in a more abstract sense to the termination of a connection or association: He left the advertising profession but continued to mix with agency people.

In other uses, leave may be closely synonymous with the other words in this group, though all the others are more emotionally laden. Abandon denotes a complete giving up, especially of what one has previously been interested in or responsible for; the word points to total relinquishment or withdrawal, sometimes under pressure of circumstances or in breach of duty. A man may, rightly or wrongly, abandon an attempt or an idealistic dream after encountering difficulties. A scientist may abandon an unpromising project to engage in more useful and rewarding research. A captain may give orders to abandon ship when the vessel is sinking. A military commander may justifiably abandon an exposed position, but for him to abandon his troops or his post would be reprehensible. Desert adds to abandon the idea that a legal or moral obligation or trust is being violated. It means to abandon a post, duty, relationship or loyalty in violation of one’s faith, oath, responsibility or orders: a recruit who deserted his platoon under fire; a turncoat who deserted his party.

Leave , abandon and desert are all applied to marital or family relationships but often differ in their implications. A man who leaves his wife may do so openly and may still contribute to her support. A mother who abandons her child utterly relinquishes her personal responsibility for him, consigning his fate to chance or other people. A man who deserts his wife and children wilfully abandons them, without legal justification, with the intent to renounce entirely all legal and moral obligation.

In a specific, intransitive sense, desert means to leave military service without permission and with the intention of not returning. Leave , by contrast, may indicate no more than a temporary departure, while abandon may point to a position that has been left.

• The sentry left his post for a few minutes; The soldier abandoned his post and deserted .

The past participles abandoned and deserted both emphasize the result of a departure, pointing to the condition of the place left empty or the plight of the result of a departure, pointing to the condition of the place left empty or the plight of the person left alone: the helpless, forlorn figure of an abandoned child; an outpost abandoned to the elements; an abandoned house falling into ruin, left desolate by its former occupants; a woman afraid to walk down a deserted street at night.

Forsake implies the breaking off of a close personal attachment and may refer to a spiritual as well as to a physical desertion . It often involves the letting down of a loved one or dependant and may point to a lack of positive action as well as to a negative abandonment .

• She pleaded with her husband not to forsake her; to forsake one’s friends by failing to go to their aid when they are in trouble.

Forsake may also mean to give up something that once was cherished or was freely indulged in or enjoyed.

• Arthur Rimbaud forsook poetry at the age of nineteen; Doubts led the girl to forsake her faith and leave the church; In the marriage ceremony, the groom promised that, forsaking all other, he would keep him only unto his wife.

These words refer to the act of moving away from a previous position. Leave , in its generality, may stress the position that is being given up: leaving the office; leaving home; leaving the party early. It may also suggest the casting off of something in the course of a movement: leaving behind a trail of banana and orange peels. Or it may simply suggest passing by something with which one has not been in actual contact at all: leaving one island after another in their wake. Go is even more general than leave and carries fewer connotations. In isolation, it stresses the sheer act of moving away or passing along, without reference to what one leave behind: going forwards through all sorts of terrain. It may also imply movement away from a place, position or starting point, especially when it is used as a command or signal, as in a race: On your mark, get set, go ! In contrast to leave , however, go sometimes stresses the destination of a movement rather than its point of origin: just going to the grocer’s for some bread.

Depart , like leave , emphasizes the starting point of a movement, though the destination is more often named; it is also more formal than leave and may suggest a planned leaving rather than one taken on the spur of the moment: departing for Europe next Wednesday; trains that depart (or leave) every hour on the hour. Retire stresses movement from a relatively public place to a more private one: retiring into the study where they could talk freely. In a special sense, it means to go to bed: The butler said that madame had retired for the evening. Its formality would make retire sound odd or antiquated in everyday conversation, except when it is used specifically to refer to the termination of one’s active service or career: an ageing opera singer who retired from the stage to teach. Withdraw , if used in a sense similar to the general meaning of retire , would sound even more antiquated, but it has a viable use when it suggests retracing one’s steps away from a recent advance: the battalion that withdrew from positions occupied the night before; withdrawing from her exposed vantage point at the uncurtained window.