abdicate

AB'DICATE, v.t. [L. abdica; ab and dico, to dedicate, to bestow, but the literal primary sense of dico is to send or thrust.]

1. In a general sense, to relinquish, renounce, or abandon.

2. To abandon an office or trust, without a formal resignation to those who conferred it, or without their consent; also to abandon a throne, without a formal surrender of the crown.

3. To relinquish an office before the expiration of the time of service.

4. To reject; to renounce; to abandon as a right.

5. To cast away; to renounce; as to abdicate our mental faculties [Unusual.]

6. In the civil law, to disclaim a son and expel him from the family, as a father; to disinherit during the life of the father.

AB'DICATE, v.i. To renounce; to abandon; to cast off; to relinquish, as a right, power, or trust.

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