abdicate

English

Etymology

From Latin abdicātus (“renounced”), perfect passive participle of abdicō (“renounce, reject, disclaim”), formed from ab (“away”) + dicō (“proclaim, dedicate, declare”), akin to dīcō (“say”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæb.dɪˌkeɪt/

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Verb

abdicate (third-person singular simple present abdicates, present participle abdicating, simple past and past participle abdicated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
2. (transitive, reflexive, obsolete) To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of.
3. (transitive, obsolete) To depose.
4. (transitive, obsolete) To reject; to cast off; to discard.
   • 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 Crooke, , published 1660, →OCLC, page 48:

     [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.

5. (transitive) 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.

   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: W Strahan; and T Cadell, , →OCLC:

     The cross-bearers abdicated their service.

   • 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 Dodsley, , →OCLC:

     He abdicates all right to be his own governor.

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

     The understanding abdicates its functions.

   • 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:

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

6. (intransitive) To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty.
   • 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 Dodsley, , →OCLC:

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

Synonyms

Antonyms

• claim
• grasp
• maintain
• occupy
• retain
• seize
• usurp

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

References

• “abdicate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Italian

Verb

abdicate

1. inflection of abdicare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Latin

Verb

abdicāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of abdicō

Spanish

Verb

abdicate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of abdicar combined with te