Usage examples for abdicate:

• But the Emperor Francis, who was standing by the side of his consort, looked with a somewhat sneering expression on the crowd below, and, turning to the empress, he said: Perhaps my dear Viennese may consider Haydn on his easy- chair yonder their emperor, and I myself may abdicate and go home. "Andreas Hofer" – Lousia Muhlbach

• December 2, 1848, the easy- going, incompetent Emperor Ferdinand was induced by the reactionaries to abdicate "The Governments of Europe" – Frederic Austin Ogg

• But when they declared themselves emperors and made their old father abdicate an outburst of popular wrath was provoked. "The Byzantine Empire" – Charles William Chadwick Oman