[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

abdicate \ab"dicate\, v. t. imp.  p. p. abdicated; p. pr. 
   vb. n. abdicating. l. abdicatus, p. p. of abdicare; ab +
   dicare to proclaim, akin to dicere to say. see diction.
   1. to surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to
      withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high
      office, station, dignity; as, to abdicate the throne, the
      crown, the papacy.
      1913 webster

   note: the word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of
         james ii., to abandon without a formal surrender.
         1913 webster

               the cross-bearers abdicated their service.
                                                  --gibbon.
         1913 webster

   2. to renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust,
      duty, right, etc.
      1913 webster

            he abdicates all right to be his own governor.
                                                  --burke.
      1913 webster

            the understanding abdicates its functions. --froude.
      1913 webster

   3. to reject; to cast off. obs. --bp. hall.
      1913 webster

   4. civil law to disclaim and expel from the family, as a
      father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
      1913 webster

   syn: to give up; quit; vacate; relinquish; forsake; abandon;
        resign; renounce; desert.

   usage: to abdicate, resign. abdicate commonly expresses
          the act of a monarch in voluntary and formally
          yielding up sovereign authority; as, to abdicate the
          government. resign is applied to the act of any
          person, high or low, who gives back an office or trust
          into the hands of him who conferred it. thus, a
          minister resigns, a military officer resigns, a clerk
          resigns. the expression, "the king resigned his
          crown," sometimes occurs in our later literature,
          implying that he held it from his people. -- there are
          other senses of resign which are not here brought into
          view.
          1913 webster
see also:
abdicated abdicating diction abdicate resign 

Abdicating >> A Words
Abdicating, definition of term: Abdicating
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