abdicating

Verb

abdicate (third-person singular simple present abdicates, present participle abdicating, simple past and past participle abdicated)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
2. (obsolete, reflexive, transitive) To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of.
3. (obsolete, transitive) To depose.
4. (obsolete, transitive) To reject; to cast off; to discard.
   • [W]e were legally call'd by his Majeſties writ to give our Attendance in Parliament, […] if we did not, we ſhould betray the Truſt committed to us by his Majeſtie, and ſhamefully betray and abdicate the due right both of our ſelves and Succeſſours.1647 June 8 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Hall, “Bishop Hall’s Hard Measure”, in The Shaking of the Olive-Tree. The Remaining Works of that Incomparable Prelate Joseph Hall, D.D. […], London: […] J....

   Synonyms:

   abandon, abjure, cast aside, cast off, cede, desert, disinherit, disown, forego, forsake

5. (transitive) To surrender, renounce or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; to fail to fulfill responsibility for.
   • to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy
6. (intransitive) To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty.
   • Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy.1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC