abdicate

verb

1. 1

   To disclaim and expel from the family, as a father his child; to disown; to disinherit.

2. 2

   To formally separate oneself from or to divest oneself of.

3. 3

   To depose.

4. 4

   To reject; to cast off; to discard.

5. 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.

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

6. 6

   To relinquish or renounce a throne, or other high office or dignity; to renounce sovereignty.