abdicate

• First attested in 1541.
• From Latin abdicātus (“renounced”), perfect passive participle of abdicō (“renounce, reject, disclaim”), formed from ab (“away”) + dicō (“proclaim, dedicate, declare”), akin to dīcō (“say”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈæb.dɪˌkeɪt/
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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. [Attested from the mid 16^th century until the early 19^th century.]
2. (transitive, reflexive, obsolete) To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of. [First attested from the mid 16^th century until the late 17^th century.]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To depose. [Attested from the early 17^th century until the late 18^th century.]
4. (transitive, obsolete) To reject; to cast off; to discard. [Attested from the mid 16^th century until the late 17^th century.]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Hall to this entry?)

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 17^th 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.

   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

     The cross-bearers abdicated their service.

   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France:

     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.

6. (intransitive) To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty. [First attested in the early 18^th century.]
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France:

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

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

• abdicate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

abdicate

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

abdicāte

1. first-person plural present active imperative of abdicō