Ab'di-cā'tion, n.

n. [Lat. abdicatio, Fr. abdication.] The act of abdicating; the abandoning of an office, right, or trust, without a formal surrender, or before the usual or stated time of expiration; renunciation; relinquishment.

The consequences drawn from these facts [were], that they amounted to an abdication of the government, which abdication did not only affect the person of the king himself, but also of all his heirs. Blackstone.