Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To relinquish (power or responsibility) formally.
- v. To relinquish formally a high office or responsibility.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To give up, renounce, abandon, lay down, or withdraw from, as a right or claim, office, duties, dignity, authority, and the like, especially in a voluntary, public, or formal manner.
- To discard; cast away; take leave of: as, to abdicate one's mental faculties. In civil law, to disclaim and expel from a family, as a child; disinherit during lifetime: with a personal subject, as father, parent.
- To put away or expel; banish; renounce the authority of; dethrone; degrade.
- Synonyms To resign, renounce, give up, quit, vacate, relinquish, lay down, abandon, desert. (See list under abandon, v.)
- To renounce or give up something; abandon some claim; relinquish a right, power, or trust.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity.
- v. To renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc.
- v. obsolete To reject; to cast off.
- v. (Civil Law) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
- v. To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity.
WordNet 3.0
- v. give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations
Etymologies
- Latin abdicāre, abdicāt-, to disclaim : ab-, away; see ab-1 + dicāre, to proclaim; see deik- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The word abdicate has to our ears a certain regal sound.”
“And, opinion polls have suggested, done by various television networks that over 55 percent still want her to stay on the throne and not to retire or even to abdicate, which is not in our constitution anyway.”
“Kamal Abu Sena urges the president to live with dignity and "abdicate," as he put it.”
“I have never held such a high office --- nor do I aspire for it, nor have the talents to achieve it --- but I think that if I somehow was 'drafted' I would like to believe I'd follow the Mises line and "abdicate" or the Leonard Read line and "push the button".”
“Yes, I did mean "abdicate," as in abdicate their judgment TO that of their leaders.”
“There can be no doubt that nothing was further from the mind of James than to abdicate his throne-and, indeed, the Convention left open for everybody to interpret "abdicate" as a 'voluntary or an involuntary retirement from the throne as he wished.”
“Or kids tugging at their parent's arms to ask what "abdicate" means, at the very least.”
Ain't It Cool News - The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.
“The president of Ivory Coast has refused to "abdicate" in the wake of post election violence and said that any attempt to remove him will be met by force, his American representative has told The Daily Telegraph.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Film star Gloria DeHaven was the original choice, but newspaper reports said she was compelled to "abdicate" when an option in her contract was exercised.”
“There should be "clear consequences" for youngsters who commit crimes, and their parents should not be allowed to "abdicate" responsibility.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘abdicate’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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A to abominator (Chambers)
aa gets over 40 hits
aardvark 49 hits
abbatoir 103 hits
abjure 138 hitsA, A-line, A-list, A-lister, A 1, A-road, A-side, from A to B, from A to Z, A-bomb, A-effect, A level and 254 more...
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FUN - bogus definitions
Find the words (left) for the definitions below
- the person upon whom one coughs at
- appalled over how much weight you have gained
- to give up all hope of ever having a flat st...oyster, negligent, Pokemon, flatulance, lymph, rectitude, flabbergasted, willy-nilly, abdicate, coffee, gargoyle, esplanade and 4 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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5000 FREE SAT Words
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 229 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
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GRE verbal 1
GRE
hypocrisy, wizened, arcane, nascent, trifling, malaise, quibble, derogatory, inept, recant, splenetic, insouciance and 16 more...
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GRE
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abhor, abjure, abrasive, abridge, abstain, acme, activism, adhere, admonish and 195 more...
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SAT vocab
abash, abate, abdicate, aberration, abhor, abject, abnegate, abortive, absolve, abstruse, accolade, accost and 175 more...
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What Do You Mean $
ahh these hurt.....
hermit, prone, maxim, guise, solvenly, lurid, lax, amiable, irate, cloister, mediate, nettle and 100 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for abdicate.
oroboros To give up all hope of having a flat stomach. --Mensa word list winner 2006 Mar 2, 2007