abnegate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to deny or renounce

   They abnegated their gods.

2. 2
   verb

   to surrender power or a position

   The monarch abnegated their power to the ministers.

3. 3
   verb

   to deny oneself something

   I abnegated myself the luxuries of life and settled for a modest home in the mountains.

4. 4
   verb

   To deny (oneself something); to renounce or give up (a right, a power, a claim, a privilege, a convenience).

   To compel a state, upon theories of doubtful statutory interpretation, to appear as defendant suitor in its own courts, and to litigate with private parties as to whether it had abnegated its sovereignty of exemption, would be intolerable.

First attested in 1657. * Perhaps from Latin abnegō (“to refuse, reject”) from ab (“away from”) + negō (“to deny”), * Alternatively, perhaps a back-formation from abnegation.

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