ABDICATE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Abdicate

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/ˈæbdəkˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Abdicate v. t. (past & past part. abdicated; pres. part. abdicating)

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. Note: The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II., to abandon without a formal surrender. "The cross-bearers abdicated their service."

To renounce; to relinquish; said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc. "He abdicates all right to be his own governor." "The understanding abdicates its functions."

To reject; to cast off. (Obs.)

(Civil Law) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.

Synonyms: To give up; quit; vacate; relinquish; forsake; abandon; resign; renounce; desert. 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.

Abdicate v. i. To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity. "Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy."

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Etymology of 'Abdicate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Abdicate" Quotes from Famous Books

... affection when developed has its drawbacks, which should make any feeling woman afraid to put her child out to nurse. Is she prepared to divide her mother's rights, or rather to abdicate them in favour of a stranger; to see her child loving another more than herself; to feel that the affection he retains for his own mother is a favour, while his love for his foster-mother is a duty; for is not some affection due where ...

— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

... that is to say the expansion of nations, is a manifestation of vitality, its contrary (the stay-at-home attitude) is a sign of decadence. Peoples who rise, or who suddenly flourish again, are imperialistic; peoples who die are peoples who abdicate. Fascism is a doctrine which most adequately represents the tendencies, the state of mind of a people like the Italian people, which is rising again after many centuries of abandonment and of ...

— Readings on Fascism and National Socialism • Various

... Louis Philippe was overthrown in France, some disturbance occurred, and Leopold offered to abdicate; but his proposition was not accepted, and he wisely and skilfully led his government through all the troubles of that excitable period. He is a wise and prudent statesman, and as such has had a great deal ...

— Dikes and Ditches - Young America in Holland and Belguim • Oliver Optic

... and Charles X. both lived much at St. Cloud, and added to it considerably; but here, where Henry IV. had been recognized as King of France and Navarre, Charles X. was forced by the will of the people to abdicate, July 30, 1830. Two years after, Louis Philippe established himself with his family at St. Cloud, and his daughter Clmentine was married to Duke Augustus of Saxe-Coburg in its chapel, April 28, 1843. Like his uncle, Napoleon III. was devoted to St. Cloud, where—"with a light heart"—the ...

— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 • Various

... the salon. The countess went to the door, but he did not raise his head; he heard neither Marie's breathing nor the rustle of her silk dress; he was gazing at a flower in the carpet, with fixed eyes, stupid with grief; he felt he had rather die than abdicate. All the world can't have the rock of Saint Helena for a pedestal. Moreover, suicide was then the fashion in Paris. Is it not, in fact, the last resource of all atheistical societies? Raoul, as he sat there, had decided that the moment had come to die. Despair is in proportion to our hopes; that ...

— A Daughter of Eve • Honore de Balzac

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