Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) The action of deserting or abandoning.

Discharge from office; dismissal.

The condition of lacking something.

* 1906 , ‘Mark Twain’, in The Bible According to Mark Twain , 1996, p. 330:

He requires of his fellow man obedience to a very creditable code of morals, but he observes without shame or disapproval his God's utter destitution of morals.

An extreme state of poverty, in which a person is almost completely lacking in resources or means of support.

* 2009 , Rahila Gupta, The Guardian , 4 Aug 2009:

Destitution forces many asylum seekers to end up working for extremely low wages in catering, cleaning and construction, for example, without any protection against unscrupulous employers.

Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) A defect or failing; moral or spiritual degeneracy.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=1 , passage=In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.}}

A deficiency or need (of something desirable or necessary); an absence, want.

* Shakespeare

Let his lack of years be no impediment.

* 1994 , (Green Day),

I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing me down.''

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport

, title= Moldova 0-5 England , passage=If Moldova harboured even the slightest hopes of pulling off a comeback that would have bordered on miraculous given their lack of quality, they were snuffed out 13 minutes before the break when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked his way through midfield before releasing Defoe for a finish that should have been dealt with more convincingly by Namasco at his near post.}}