| 释义 |
abdicate, v.|ˈæbdɪkeɪt|
[f. L. abdicāt-, ppl. stem of abdicā-re to renounce, disown, reject; f. ab off, away + dicā-re to proclaim, make known.]
1. trans. To proclaim or declare to be no longer one's own, to disclaim, disown, cast off; esp. to disown or disinherit children. Now only as a tech. term of Rom. Law (L. abdicare filium, also patrem).
1541Elyot Im. Gov. 149 The father..doeth abdicate nowe and then one, that is to saie, putteth them out of his familie. 1644Milton Jus Pop. 34 Parents may not causelessly abdicate or disinherit children. 1697Potter Antiq. Greece iv. xv. 351 (1715) Parents were allow'd to be reconcil'd to their children, but after that could never abdicate them again. a1763Shenstone Essays 117 Wherever I disesteemed, I would abdicate my first cousin. 1828Sewell Oxf. Pr. Essay 70 Sons were exposed, abdicated, and sold by the laws of Solon.
†2. To depose (from an office or dignity). Obs.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. i. 2. iii. xv. 127 (1651) The Turks abdicated Cernutus, the next heir, from the empire.
†3. refl. To formally cut oneself off, sever, or separate oneself from anything; esp. to divest oneself of an office (L. abdicare se magistratu). Obs.
1548Hall Chron. Introd. Hist. Hen. IV. 11 (1809) To perswade a man..to Abdicate himselfe from his empire and imperiall preheminence. 1689Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 299 The great convention..resolved that King James..had by demise abdicated himself and wholly vacated his right. 1689H. More Myst. Iniq. 28 A Prince..who, by transgressing against the Laws of the Constitution, hath abdicated himself from the Government, and stands virtually Deposed.
†4. trans. To put away, cast off, discard (anything). Obs.
1553–87Foxe A. & M. (1596) 333/2 The King our souereigne lord and maister cannot abdicate from himselfe this right. 1633Bp. Hall Hard Texts 343 Neither hast thou, O Cyrus, so well known me as to abdicate thine Idolatry. 1642Rogers Naaman 527 If the Lord Jesus purposely would defile and abdicate the seventh day Sabbath of the Jew. 1688–9Lady R. Russell Letters No. 84. II. 11 Accidents may abdicate your opinion.
5. To formally give up (a right, trust, office, or dignity); to renounce, lay down, surrender, abandon; at first implying voluntary renunciation, but now including the idea of abandonment by default. See the parliamentary discussions of 1688.
1633Bp. Hall Hard Texts 41 Abdicating our just privileges. 1688Ld. Somers Speech on the Vacation of the Throne The word abdicate doth naturally and properly signify, entirely to renounce, to throw off, disown, relinquish any thing or person, so as to have no further to do with it; and that whether it be done by express words or in writing (which is the sense your Lordships put upon it, and which is properly called resignation or cession), or by doing such acts as are inconsistent with the holding and retaining of the thing, which the Commons take to be the present case. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil (1840) i. i. 14 The thrones which the Devil and his followers abdicated and were deposed from. 1783Johnson Club Rules in Boswell (1816) IV. 277 Whoever shall for three months together omit to attend..shall be considered as having abdicated the club. 1805Foster Essays i. vii. 90 To have abdicated the dignity of reason. 1857Prescott Philip i. i. 10 The Regent Mary formally abdicated her authority. 1857Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art, 5 A power not indeed to be envied..but still less to be abdicated or despised.
6. Comm. Law. Said of the insurer surrendering his rights of ownership to the underwriters.
1755N. Magens Ess. Insur. II. 36 The Owners of such Gold, Silver, or Pearls, cannot renounce or abdicate them to the Underwriters.
7. absol. (by ellipsis of the thing resigned, usually the throne or crown). To renounce or relinquish sovereignty, or its equivalent.
a1704T. Brown Epigr. Wks. 1730 I. 121 Either he must abdicate or thou. 1726De Foe Hist. Devil (1840) ii. i. 181 The Devil abdicated for awhile. 1837Carlyle Fr. Rev. I. vii. xi. 399 Is it not strange so few kings abdicate; and none yet heard of has been known to commit suicide? 1879Gladstone Gleanings III. i. 5 The Majority have in virtue and effect abdicated, and their opponents are the true and genuine corporation. |