abjure

verb

1. (formal, transitive)To solemnly reject (someone or something); to abandon (someone or something) forever; to disavow, to disclaim, to repudiate.

   “to abjure errors”

   “Her[mia]. […] But I beſeech your Grace, that I may knovve / The vvorſt that may befall mee in this caſe, / If I refuſe to vved Demetrius. / The[seus]. Either to dy the death, or to abiure, / For euer, the ſociety of men.”

   “She diſappeerd, and left me dark, I vvak'd / To find her, or for ever to deplore / Her loſs, and other pleaſures all abjure: […]”

   “[B]oth Charles [I] himself and his creature [William] Laud, while they abjured the innocent badges of Popery, retained all its worst vices, […]”

   “Only as thou abjurest self, / Lovest thy Brother more than pelf, / And drivest out the impish elf, // Sectarian pride, from all thy heart, / Canst thou have place, or lot, or part / Within the Heaven-created mart […]”

2. (formal, historical, transitive)To renounce (something) upon oath; to forswear; specifically, to recant or retract (a heresy or some other opinion); to withdraw.

   “to abjure allegiance to a prince”

   “[T]he man ye write of, was of many thinges borne wrõge [wrong] in hande, & therin ſo ſore handeled that he was forced to for ſwere and abiure certaine hereſyes, & openly to penance therfore, where he neuer held any ſuch.”

   “Graues at my command, / Haue vvak'd their ſleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth / By my ſo potent Art. But this rough Magicke / I heere abiure: […]”

   “[T]he conceſſion vvas far ſhort of ſatisfying the principle vvhich Lord Hillſborough had abjured; or even the pretence on vvhich the repeal of the other taxes vvas announced: […]”

   “VVouldeſt thou devote thyſelf to me? Adore then the terreſtrial influences; and abjure Mahomet.”

3. (formal, historical, transitive)To cause (someone) to recant or retract (a heresy or some other opinion).

   “[T]hey vvere betrayed, and then many of them to the number of ſix or ſeven ſcore vvere abjured, and three or four of them burnt. Novv although vve knevv not hovv to call theſe Martyrs vvho ſo ſuffered, their Names no doubt are vvritten in the Book of Life.”

4. (formal, historical, transitive)Especially in abjure the realm: to swear an oath to leave (a place) forever.

   “When a clerk heretofore was convicted of felony, he might have saved his life by abjuring the realm; that is, by departing the realm within a certain time appointed, and taking an oath never to return. But at this day all statutes for abjuration are repealed.”

   “[A]s a feme-covert recuſant may be impriſoned, ſo all others muſt, vvithin three months after conviction, either ſubmit and renounce their errors, or, if required ſo to do by four juſtices, muſt abjure and renounce the realm: and if they do not depart, or if they return vvithout the king's licence, they ſhall be guilty of felony, and ſuffer death as felons.”

5. (formal, historical, obsolete, rare, transitive)To cause or compel (someone) to leave a place forever; to banish.

   “The ſtrong effect of theyr conceiued ire, / Vrging the vveake King vvith a violent hand, / T' abiure thoſe falſe Lords from the troubled land.”

   “About this time a ſubject brought in a Bull of Excommunication againſt another ſubject of this Realm, and publiſhed it to the Lord Treaſurer of England, and this vvas by the ancient Common-Law of England adjudged Treason againſt the King, his Crovvn and dignity, for the vvhich, the offender ſhould have been dravvn and hanged, but at the great inſtance of the chancelour and Treaſurer, he vvas onely abjured the Realm for ever.”

   “In the Time of King Edward III. one ſhould have been hanged, dravvn and quartered, for publiſhing an Excommunication, directed from the Biſhop of Rome againſt one of the King's Subjects. But at the Entreaty of the Lord Chancellor and Lord Treaſurer, his Life vvas pardoned; notvvithſtanding he vvas abjured the Realm.”

6. (formal, intransitive)To solemnly reject; to abandon forever.

   “Eaſily canſt thou find one miſerable, / And not inforc'd oft-times to part from truth; / If it may ſtand him more in ſtead to lye, / Say and unſay, feign, flatter, or abjure?”

7. (formal, historical, intransitive)To recant or retract a heresy on oath.

   “Nor neuer yet found I ani. j. [any one] but he would once abiure, though he neuer intended to kepe his othe.”

   “And going toward the Justice Gate, many said to him, "Recant! Recant! Don't insist on dying," and he said, "Christ died for us." […] At the Field of Justice, one said to him he should do as a certain monk, his superior, had done, abjuring: but Michael answered that he would not abjure, and I saw many in the crowd agree and urge Michael to be strong: so I and many others realized those were his followers, and we moved away from them.”

8. (formal, historical, intransitive)To swear an oath to leave a place forever.

   “I Abiowre⸝ I forſake myne errours as an heretyke dothe⸝ or forſwere the kynges landes⸝ ie abiure, prime coniugationis.”

   “Well to bee ſhort, what for the cauſes before recited, as alſo for that they had once alreadie abiured, and yet (as they terme it) fell againe into relapſe, they were both (as you haue heard) in the end burned together in Smithfield: […]”

   “One abjureth and is after taken in England, and demanded what he could ſay, why Execution ſhould not be awarded, he ſtands mute, he ſhall be hanged, and not put to penance or preſſed; becauſe he was attainted of the Felony before by his Confeſſion: For he cannot have the Benefit of the Sanctuary to abjure, unleſs he confeſs the Felony which is entered on Record by the Coroner; […]”