A B C book, a primer. Shak.
||Ab"dal (&?;), n. [Ar. badl, pl. abdl, a substitute, a good, religious man, saint, fr. badala to change, substitute.] A religious devotee or dervish in Persia.
Ab*de"ri*an (&?;), a. [From Abdera, a town in Thrace, of which place Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher, was a native.] Given to laughter; inclined to foolish or incessant merriment.
Ab*de"rite (&?;), n. [L. Abderita, Abderites, fr. Gr. 'Abdhri`ths.] An inhabitant of Abdera, in Thrace.
The Abderite, Democritus, the Laughing Philosopher.
Ab"dest (&?;), n. [Per. bdast; ab water + dast hand.] Purification by washing the hands before prayer; -- a Mohammedan rite. Heyse.
Ab"di*ca*ble (&?;), a. Capable of being abdicated.
Ab"di*cant (&?;), a. [L. abdicans, p. pr. of abdicare.] Abdicating; renouncing; -- followed by of.
Monks abdicant of their orders.
Whitlock.
Ab"di*cant, n. One who abdicates. Smart.
Ab"di*cate (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abdicated (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Abdicating.] [L. abdicatus, p. p. of abdicare; ab + dicare to proclaim, akin to dicere to say. See Diction.] 1. To surrender or relinquish, as sovereign power; to withdraw definitely from filling or exercising, as a high office, station, dignity; as, to abdicate the throne, the crown, the papacy.
The word abdicate was held to mean, in the case of James II., to abandon without a formal surrender.
The cross-bearers abdicated their service.
Gibbon.