abdicate
verbUK /ˈæb.dɪˌkeɪt/
Etymology First attested in 1532; borrowed from Latin abdicātus (“renounced”), perfect passive participle of abdicō (“to renounce, reject, disclaim”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), formed from ab (“away”) + dicō (“proclaim, dedicate, declare”), akin to dīcō (“to say”). Compare Middle English abdicat (“forsaken, renounced”). Compare typologically abandon, Russian отказа́ться (otkazátʹsja), отре́чься (otréčʹsja).
Obsolete To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
Obsolete To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of.
Obsolete To depose.
Obsolete To reject; to cast off; to discard.
- [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:
To 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.
- to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy
- Note: The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II, to abandon without a formal surrender.
4 more examples
- 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:
To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty.
- 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:
- Synonyms
- Derived terms
- abdicable, abdicant, abdication, abdicative, abdicator, unabdicate