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

That's an abdication of the Senate's responsibility. —NBC News, 1 Dec. 2024

Prophecy so tightly adheres to Villeneuve’s vision that the series feels like an act of cowardice and abdication of creativity. —Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 17 Nov. 2024

America walks away Nobody knows how the major powers and their Machiavellian leaders will react to this abdication of American hegemony. —Andreas Kluth, The Mercury News, 15 Nov. 2024

Both schemes too have been criticized as representing the failure or abdication of Europe to live up to its international humanitarian obligations. —Frey Lindsay, Forbes, 21 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1571, in the meaning defined above