abdicate

verb

Etymology: First attested in 1532; borrowed from Latin abdicātus (“renounced”), perfect passive participle of abdicō (“to renounce, reject, disclaim”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), formed from ab (“away”) + dicō (“proclaim, dedicate, declare”), akin to dīcō (“to say”). Compare Middle English abdicat (“forsaken, renounced”).

1. To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.
2. To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of.
3. To depose.
4. 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.”

5. 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”

   “Note: The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II, to abandon without a formal surrender.”

6. 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.”