abdication

noun

ab·​di·​ca·​tion ˌab-di-ˈkā-shən 

plural abdications

: an act of abdicating: such as

a

: an act of giving up sovereign power or high office

The desire of King Edward VIII to marry divorced U.S. socialite Wallis Simpson led to the king's abdication in 1936, an event that also brought Harry, his father Prince Charles and his brother, Prince William, into the line of succession.

—Martha Ross

From the advent of Alexander the Great, in 332 B.C., to the abdication of King Farouk, in 1952, the country was ruled without interruption by non-Egyptians.

—Milton Viorst

b

: an act of abandoning or discarding a right, responsibility, etc.

an abdication of authority

The militants took the liberties of Europe as a sign of moral and political abdication.

—Fouad Ajami

When the majority throws up its hands because the problems are too tough, that's simply an abdication of responsibility.

—Michael S. Serrill

Examples of abdication in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

King Frederik, who assumed the Danish throne after the abdication of Queen Margrethe II last year, has made a significant tweak to the royal coat of arms for the first time in more than 500 years, a move that was viewed by historians as a clear signal to Greenland — and perhaps Trump. —Astha Rajvanshi, NBC News, 7 Jan. 2025

Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments also reveal another dimension of compliance: the abdication of responsibility. —Dr. Sunita Sah, TIME, 4 Jan. 2025

To pretend that a national tragedy was a personal villainy is a form of escapism and moral abdication. —John R. MacArthur, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024

Waiting for innocent citizens to be investigated — at great emotional, financial and reputational harm — would be an unacceptable abdication of Biden’s constitutional duty to preserve the rule of law. —Pierce O'Donnell, The Mercury News, 12 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1571, in the meaning defined above