n. 25B6; verb his chief intelligence officer defected : DESERT, change sides, turn traitor, rebel, renege; abscond, quit, escape; break faith; secede from, revolt against; informal rat on; Military go AWOL; poetic/literary forsake; rare tergiversate.
DEFECT
Meaning of DEFECT in English
Concise Oxford thesaurus English vocabulary. Краткий оксфордский словарь английского языка тезаурус. 2012