to abdicate
23
8.0
- verb
- /ˈæb.dɪ.keɪt/
- Formal
:
abdicar
- Do you know why King Edward VIII abdicated the British throne?
- abdicate responsibility
- abdicate power
- abdicate leadership
So in the name of all things orange, holy and goblet, I now abdicate my throne.
- So in the name of all things orange, holy and goblet, I now abdicate my throne.
- You can't abdicate the field because we'll get eaten up.
- Not only did the Christians not crumble, but of course Diocletian's most effective successor, six years after he abdicated, would convert to Christianity.
- Actually, in Munich a workers council forces the Last King of Bavaria Ludwig the Third to abdicate and a Bavarian Free State is declared.
- Magistrate judges around the United States have many times abdicated their duty to ask hard questions of the DOJ.
- And when you say your only job is to be loving towards someone else, you're abdicating responsibility for loving yourself.
- And what I want to do is I want to flip the script and help you understand that when you abdicate responsibility, you actually surrender your power.
- For him a decentralist solution which abdicated the role of cities was the option.
- The Republican Congress has abdicated all of their power, their decency.
- I think that by surrendering, it's as if we just abdicated the moral conversation.
- Has the United States just abdicated?
Examples
-
Then three years after the royal wedding, the king abdicated.
-
Prime Minister, I'm sorry to call so late, but I'm afraid the Queen has abdicated.
-
In seven days, you abdicate your throne.
-
I shall abdicate my throne and return to my TV chair.
-
Efforts by any level of government to abdicate its share of the responsibility in welfare reform will ultimately fail.
Academic text (1996) -
To be sure, Gates cannot and should not abdicate his responsibility to exercise civilian control of the military.
Academic text (2007) -
Should His Majesty continue to ignore the advice of his government, he must abdicate.
-
They told him the war was lost and he must abdicate in favour of his son if possible.
-
Peter Pounce is a local patriarch who has completely abdicated responsibility for poor relief.
Academic text (2007) -
The king decided to abdicate the throne after years of pressure from his advisors.
Synonyms
788
1.2
To leave a job or position
722
4.4
To stop fighting and give control or things to someone else, often when forced
148
3.3
Give up an important job so someone else can take over
129
3.4
Move out of the way or leave a job so someone else can take it
123
5.1
To stop doing a job, duty or action after someone tells you to
69
6.3
To give up a right, belief, job, or position officially
69
7.2
To give up control, a right, or something you own
53
4.2
Stop being a leader with official power, for example a government official or company boss
39
8.2
To officially give control, ownership or rights to someone else
22
3.7
Give up a right or title to something
To officially give up power, rights, or a position
Antonyms
How Complete
- Formal
23
8.0
- Formal
69
6.3
- Formal
69
7.2
- Formal
533
3.7
148
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
abdicate = dictate (opaque) = ab + dict + ate
Although the form matches ab- + dictate, the meaning 'give up power' is not derivable from 'dictate' ('to order'/'to say'), so learners will not transparently infer the sense.
Etymology
The word abdicate comes from the Latin parts ab- 'away' and dicare 'to declare', and the same dic root appears in words like dictate and dictionary. So, to abdicate is to 'declare away' your power or job, which is why it means formally giving up a position.