abdicate

t. & i. [Lat. abdico = (lit.) to say a thing does not belong to one, to detach oneself from, to renounce, resign, abdicate; (legal) to renounce one (especially a son), to disinherit him: ab = from; dico = to bind, to dedicate, consecrate, or devote.] I. Transitive : 1. Gen.: To relinquish, abandon, give uр. 2. Spec.: To relinquish the throne without resigning it. After the flight of James II., in 1689, Lord Chancellor Somers, Maynard, and other eminent men, contended that the fugitive monarch had abdicated the throne, and induced the House of Commons to adopt the following extraordinary definition of the verb to abdicate : "It was moved that King James II., having endea voured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom by breaking the original contract between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the throne had thereby become vacant."-Macaulay: Hist. of Eng ., chap. x. It was not, however, at a logical definition that Somers and his companions aimed, but at framing a motion likely to pa the House, as this one triumphantly did. The word abdicate is sometimes used for the desertion of offices inferior to the throne. 3. Formally to resign an office before one's time of service has expired, or an office which one might have been expected to retain till death. "It was in the twenty-first year of his reign that Diocletian executed his memorable design of abdicat ing the empire. Diocletian acquired the glory of giving to the world the first example of a resignation which has not been very frequently imitated by sueceeding monarchs."- Gibbon : Dec. & Fall , chap. xiii. 4. To reject, to renounce, to relinquish as a right or privilege, or a valuable po e ion. "But Christ as soon would abdicate his own, As stoop from heaven to sell the proud a throne." Cowper : Truth . "The understanding abdicates its functions, and men are given over, as if by magic, to the enchantments of insanity." - Froude: Hist. of Eng . , chap. vii. 5. Civil Law: To renounce a son, to disinherit a son, during the lifetime of a father. "It may be further observed that parents were allowed to be reconciled to their children, but after that could never abdicate them again."- Potter : Grecian Antiquities , iv. 15. Also figuratively: draw them closer unto thee whom thou seemest for the time to abdicate."-Bp. Hall. *6. To dethrone, to deprive of office, to degrade. "The Turks abdicated Comulus, the next heir to the empire."- Burton : Anat. of Melancholy . II. Intransitive: To abandon or relinquish a throne, or other office, dignity, or privilege. since he (a prince] cannot abdicate for his children." Swift : On the Sentiments of a Church of England Man. ab-di-ca-těd, pa. par. & adj. [ABDICATE.] 1. Active : Used of one who has abdicated a throne or other dignity. "The abdicated monarch retired." - Gibbon: De cline and Fall , chap. xli. 2. Pa ive : Abandoned, renounced, referring to the throne or office abdicated. "And hoped to seize his abdicated helm." Cowper: Expostulation. ab-di-ca-ting, pr. par. [ABDICATE.]