Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Abdicate

Abdicate ({not transcribed}) , transitive verb

[Latin abdicatus, past participle of abdicare; ab + dicare to proclaim, akin to dicere to say. See Diction.]

1.
To surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; as, to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy.
The cross-bearers abdicated their service. — Gibbon

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

2.
To renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc.
He abdicates all right to be his own governor. — Burke
The understanding abdicates its functions. — Froude
3.
To reject; to cast off. [Obsolete] — Bp. Hall
4.
(Civil Law) To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.

Abdicate ({not transcribed}) , intransitive verb

To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity.
Though a king may abdicate for his own person, he cannot abdicate for the monarchy. — Burke