abdicate

present singular third person abdicates · participle present abdicating · participle past abdicated · past abdicated

1. obsoletetransitiveTo disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.First known use mid 16th – early 19th c.
2. obsoletereflexivetransitiveTo formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of.First known use mid 16th – late 17th c.
3. obsoletetransitiveTo depose.First known use early 17th – late 18th c.
4. obsoletetransitiveTo reject; to cast off; to discard.First known use mid 16th – late 17th c.

   [W]e were legally call'd by his Majeſties writ to give our Attendance in Parliament, […] if we did not, we ſhould betray the Truſt committed to us by his Majeſtie, and ſhamefully betray and abdicate the due right both of our ſelves and Succeſſours.

   1647 June 8 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Hall, “Bishop Hall’s Hard Measure”, in The Shaking of the Olive-Tree. The Remaining Works of that Incomparable Prelate Joseph Hall, D.D. […], London: […] J. Cadwel for J[ohn] Crooke, […], published 1660, →OCLC, page 48

   Synonyms: abandon, abjure, cast aside, cast off, cede, desert, disinherit, disown

5. transitiveTo surrender, renounce or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; to fail to fulfill responsibility for.First known use mid 17th c.

   to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy

   5 more examples

   Note: The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II, to abandon without a formal surrender.

   The cross-bearers abdicated their service.

   1776–1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC

   He abdicates all right to be his own governor.

   1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC

   The understanding abdicates its functions.

   1856, James Anthony Froude, History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth

   Although the 1970s ushered in a culture of relative moral freedom, the courts refused to abdicate their role of custodians of public morality.

   2022, Janet Loveless, Mischa Allen, Caroline Derry, chapter 12, in Complete Criminal Law, 8th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, 12.2.5, page 649

6. intransitiveTo relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty.First known use First attested in the early 18th c.

   Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.

   1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC