abdicate
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /ˈæb.dɪˌkeɪt/
Verb

abdicate (abdicates, present participle abdicating; past and past participle abdicated)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit. [Attested from the mid 16th century until the early 19th century.]
  2. (transitive, reflexive, obsolete) To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of. [First attested from the mid 16th century until the late 17th century.]
  3. (transitive, obsolete) To depose. [Attested from the early 17th century until the late 18th century.]
  4. (transitive, obsolete) To reject; to cast off; to discard. [Attested from the mid 16th century until the late 17th century.]
  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. [First attested in the mid 17th century.]
    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.
  6. (intransitive) To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty. [First attested in the early 18th century.]
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