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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
abscond
verb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Bedford had a clear memory of the day the news had struck that Schuyler had absconded.
▪ Clarke surrounded the building, but the brothers had been forewarned and had absconded.
▪ Patients who absconded were always accepted back, whether their medical condition warranted it or not.
▪ Scroggins and Payne, Messrs, debt collectors and employers of Captain Helves, who abscond with part of their funds.
▪ That incident led to the man absconding from the prison just weeks before his sentence was due to end.
▪ The boy admitted five charges of joyriding and absconding while on bail.
▪ The other seven had in the meantime absconded.
▪ They could stay if they so chose or they could abscond.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Abscond

Abscond \Ab*scond"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Absconded; p. pr. & vb. n. Absconding.] [L. abscondere to hide; ab, abs + condere to lay up; con + d[a^]re (only in comp.) to put. Cf. Do.]

  1. To hide, withdraw, or be concealed.

    The marmot absconds all winter.
    --Ray.

  2. To depart clandestinely; to steal off and secrete one's self; -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid a legal process; as, an absconding debtor.

    That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond.
    --Macaulay.

Abscond

Abscond \Ab*scond"\, v. t. To hide; to conceal. [Obs.]
--Bentley.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
abscond

1560s, from Middle French abscondre and directly from Latin abscondere "to hide, conceal, put out of sight," from ab(s)- "away" (see ab-) + condere "put together, store," from com- "together" (see com-) + -dere "put," from PIE *dhe- "to put, place, make" (see factitious). The notion is of "to hide oneself," especially to escape debt or the law. Related: Absconded; absconder; absconding.

Wiktionary
abscond

vb. 1 (context intransitive reflexive archaic English) To hide, to be in hiding or concealment. 2 (context intransitive reflexive English) To flee, often secretly; to steal away, particularly to avoid arrest or prosecution. (From mid 16th century.) 3 (context intransitive English) To withdraw from. (From mid 16th century.)(R:SOED5: page=8) 4 (context transitive obsolete English) To conceal; to take away. (First attested in the late 16th century.)

WordNet
abscond

v. run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along [syn: bolt, absquatulate, decamp, run off, go off]

Usage examples of "abscond".

An attempt to abscond could mean three months and a hundred lashes in addition.

That determination had become an obsession now, which he recognized for what it was-the sole reason for his survival and for his recently taken decision firstly to be accepted as a reformed and model prisoner at Port Arthur and secondly to abscond therefrom.

He should boast of his accomplishment and use it as a warning to any others who might attempt to abscond with the affections of his mate.

Before he could abscond to the police station, Farrokh felt obliged to set a trap for Mr Garg.

He was arrested, charged with attempting to abscond and sent back to Wayland, where he remained until he had completed his sentence.

Bushranging was revived on an unprecedented scale, so were crimes of violence, and men absconded almost at will.

At night he has my watch, passport, and half my money, and I often wonder what would become of me if he absconded before morning.

Loiterers assembled, but no one came to draw the vehicle, and by degrees the dismal truth leaked out that the three coolies who had been impressed for the occasion had all absconded, and that four policemen were in search of them.

Potomac, searching for an ex-clerk of the Treasury Department, James Taliaferro, who had absconded with important documents.

Collier absconded, and published a vindication of their conduct, in which he affirmed that the imposition of hands was the general practice of the primitive church.

One Saturday afternoon he absconded and turned himself in at the local police station a few hours later.

They say that his colonial conviction and present sentence to this godforsaken island was for bushranging, after absconding from his assigned place of work.

Not that many do, and none of them have been absconding convicts, up to now.

So I told him all about it, about my purse being returned to me and about Sean Metcalfe absconding and how I was certain almost that it was him.

The police have arrested one assailant while two other accused are absconding on a scooter in a rash manner.