ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED.]
1. Formally renounced, resigned, or given up. Used especially of a possession, right, or function.
1688. Ld. Somers, Speech. It is an entire alienation of the thing [abdicated]; and so stands in opposition to dicare.
1689. Apol. Fail. Walker’s Acc., 25. A Head Abdicated of Reason and Five Senses.
1713. Addison, To Sir Godf. Kneller. Old Saturn too, with up-cast eyes, Beheld his abdicated skies.
1728. G. Carleton, Mem. Eng. Officer, 233. The Siege thus abdicated (if I may use a modern Phrase).
1852. Cockburn, Life of Jeffrey, I. 26. Some new obstacle to my belief, which might return me to my abdicated opinion.
2. Deposed from an office, function, or dignity. In 17th c. including deposition by others (see ABDICATE 2), but now always, self-deposed, having formally laid down or divested himself of a dignity or trust. (See the ambiguity of its application to James II.)
1691. New Disc. Old Intreague, xviii. 15. So found too late their abdicated James.
1714. Swift, State of Affairs, Wks. II. I. 215. Those who wish to see the son of the abdicated prince upon the throne.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., II. xli. 531. The abdicated monarch fled from the justice of his country.
1825. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXXII. 368. That strange personage, Christina, the abdicated Queen of Scotland.
1866. Howells, Venetian Life, xx. 349. The abdicated Emperor of Austria.
