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In “Take the Money and Run,” a 1976 earworm by the Steve Miller Band, the singer punctuates a song about teenage bandits with the catchy refrain “Go on, take the money and run.” Granted, the song probably wouldn’t have charted had it been titled “Abscond,” but the meaning would have been the same. Abscond is a word most often used in formal writing for when someone is running and hiding from the law, often with cash or other ill-gotten gains. In legal circles it’s used specifically when someone flies like an eagle from a jurisdiction to evade the legal process, as in “absconded from parole.” The history of abscond doesn’t evade scrutiny: it comes from the Latin verb abscondere, meaning “to hide away.” (That word’s root is condere, meaning “to conceal.”) Today, whether some joker absconds by going to the country to bury some treasure or by taking a jet airliner beyond the law’s reach, they are, in essence, hiding themselves away.
Examples of abscond in a Sentence
Randall Colburn, EW.com, 28 Feb. 2025
Gordon had absconded with the Camargo while transporting ordinary merchandise from San Francisco to New York.
—Julian Lucas, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025
The league has existed as a Washington State-Oregon State dyad since August, when 10 of its dozen members officially absconded to other conferences.
—Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 22 Dec. 2024
Mia Yim interfered after with a kendo stick, and even after Piper absconded the stick, Yim got the better of Niven.
—Alfred Konuwa, Forbes, 17 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for abscond
Cite this Entry
“Abscond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abscond. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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Legal Definition
abscond
intransitive verb
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