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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.
Synonyms
Examples of abscond in a Sentence
Chris Quintana, USA TODAY, 13 Dec. 2024
As of now, Francis is the only person who’s been publicly held accountable for absconding.
—Alex Riggins, The Mercury News, 4 Nov. 2024
The key moment in the film is a montage of the lovers absconding to Chris’s Malibu getaway for a trip that’s ridiculously, car-commercial lush.
—Alison Willmore, Vulture, 4 Dec. 2024
The half-hour crime series launches worldwide Dec. 6, inspired by the real-life Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist of 2012, in which thieves absconded with the contents of almost 10,000 barrels of the sticky stuff — worth more than $17 million Canadian — from Quebec’s reserve.
—Daniel Vaillancourt, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Abscond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abscond. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024.
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Legal Definition
abscond
intransitive verb
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