absconding

Verb

abscond (third-person singular simple present absconds, present participle absconding, simple past and past participle absconded)

1. (intransitive) To flee, often secretly; to steal away.
   • The thieves absconded with our property.

   Synonyms:

   flee, run away, steal away

   1. (intransitive) To hide, conceal, or absent oneself clandestinely, with the intent to avoid legal process
      • I've often speculated why you don't return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Run off with a senator's wife? I like to think you killed a man. It's the Romantic in me.1942, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casablanca, spoken by Captain Renault (Claude Rains)
   2. (intransitive) To abandon a hive.
      • [European honey bees] raise large colonies, hoard large quantities of honey, are more gentle than other species and almost never abscond.2003, Randy Carl Lynn, Raising Healthy Honey Bees, Christian Veterinary Mission, page 10
2. (intransitive) To hide, to be in hiding or concealment.
   • the Marmotto, […] which absconds all Winter doth […] live upon its own Fat.1691-1735, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation
3. (transitive, uncommon) To evade, to hide or flee from.
   • The captain absconded his responsibility.
4. (obsolete, transitive) To conceal; to take away.
   • for having applied to the Side of the Head any thin black Body, such as the Brim of a Hat, so as it may abscond the Objects that are upon that Side1759, William Porterfield, edited by G. Hamilton and John Balfour, treatise on the eye, the manner and phaenomena of vision, volume 2

   Synonyms:

   conceal