Here are some idioms that you can use to talk about leaving, departure or abandonment. Strictly speaking, some of them are just verbs or phrasal verbs, but I found it useful to mention them as well.
You can watch the video version here:
And here are the words and idioms:
walk out on sb – to abandon sb suddenly and unexpectedly
He walked out on his wife and children without saying goodbye last week.
leave sb for dead – to abandon a person that you know will probably die instead of trying to help
The old man and his dog were badly beaten in the park and left for dead.
skip out on sb – to leave sb in secret
Officially, he got a new job in Mexico, but I think he just skipped out on his wife.
desert / leave a sinking ship – to leave a place, a situation or a person when things become difficult or unpleasant
Everything was fine when the team was winning, but as soon as the first problems came up, the coach decided to desert a sinking ship.
decamp – to leave a place suddenly and secretly
The hotel guests decamped without paying.
leave sb high and dry – to leave sb helpless and unsupported
I can’t handle this project myself. All my colleagues quit and left me high and dry.
wash one’s hands of sb / sth – to decide to no longer deal or have anything to do with sb / sth
What James did was unacceptable. I washed my hands of him immediately.
be stranded – to be left in a place without a way of leaving it
We were lucky we were alive, but we were stranded on a desert island.
hightail it – to leave a place as quickly as possible
When the burglars heard some voices in the kitchen, they hightailed it out of there as quick as they could.