-cate

1. To renounce formally, which is commonly done by a monarch of a throne; to vacate a throne, to relinquish, to abandon: Edward VIII of England abdicated the throne so he could marry a commoner whom he loved.

A king can abdicate, renounce, or swear away his kingly privileges and duties.

2. To refuse to accept an obligation or responsibility: When Sharon was told to revise her book, as instructed by her editor, she suddenly abdicated her contract with the publisher because she didn't agree with the new format.
3. To proclaim or declare to be no longer one's own, to disclaim, disown, cast off, especially to disown or disinherit children: Gary Brown abdicated his responsibilities as a husband and father and never returned to be with his wife and children again.
4. To give up a right, trust, office, or dignity; to leave, to lay down, to surrender, to abandon; at first implying voluntary renunciation, but now including the idea of abandonment by default: Governments, both national and local, seem to be abdicating their responsibilities to provide a good education for all of their citizens by greatly reducing the financial expenditures that are needed.

Tom abdicated his responsibilities as a salesman and left town to look for another place to live.
5. To leave one's position, office, or power: Yielding to the pressure of public opinion, the president of the country is abdicating his political authority.

The outraged citizens forced the talk-show host to abdicate his radio program.

6. Etymology: from Latin ab-, "away" + dicare, "to proclaim". When people abdicate their positions, they "proclaim away" their authorities.

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1. In law, to hear, to settle, and to decide a legal case or to reach a judicial conclusion about something: After hearing both sides of the divorce case involving the children, the judge adjudicated the matter and gave the mother full custody of her offspring.
2. To make an official judgement about a problem or a dispute in a law case: The two families were constantly arguing about the fence along their property lines causing them to go to court. The judge adjudicated the conflict and ordered the fence to be taken down.
3. Etymology: from Latin ad-, "to" + judicare, "to judge".

1. Someone who argues for a cause: Shirley has been a supporter, a defender, and an advocate of civil rights for many years and her husband has also been a tireless advocate of social reform.
2. People who plead in behalf or others or who are intercessors: Tina's parents have been advocates for abused children and spouses in a variety of media and social movements.
3. An individual with legal training who supports or intercedes for other people: The advocate who Jane hired to plead her case in the traffic court was successful and so she didn't have to pay a large fine.

To urge, to suggest, or to exhort in support of someone or something: In court during the weekend, Karl's friend advocated for a former student who had been sleeping in the park. © ALL rights are reserved.
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To avoid or to put off a writing assignment until the very last possible moment.

1. To set aside something for a reason or a purpose: The principal of the school allocated two teachers and three students to plan the end-of-school activities.
2. To distribute something according to a plan: The government agency announced a plan to allocate millions of dollars to purchase food supplies and medications for the storm-hit community. © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. To conduct a heated argument; to argue intensely: Julia's two daughters altercated about who would sit in the front seat of the car on their way to go shopping with their mother, who decided to have both girls sit in the back!
2. Disagreeing about something: Greg’s parents were altercating about when it would be best to go on vacation, before or after Christmas. © ALL rights are reserved.

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1. To begin or to inaugurate with a ceremony intended to bring good luck: Mr. and Mrs. Smith auspicated their 50th wedding anniversary with champagne before dinner, hoping that the years to follow would bring as much pleasure as the first 50 years.
2. To give a favorable turn when starting something; to inaugurate in a sense derived from the historical practice of observing birds in flight, before undertaking an important decision or action: The leaders of Rome usually auspicated their public activities before proceeding with them.

1. To verify or to prove one’s identity: Before Jane could check her e-mails, she first had to authenticate her e-mail address and password.

Before he could pick up his package at the post office, Jeffery had to authenticate that he was the authorized person by showing his driver’s license.

2. To prove something to be genuine; especially, some artistic piece of work: The insurance company wanted Linda to have her violin's condition authenticated by a violin expert so it could be insured in case of theft, fire, etc.

1. To divide or to branch into two directions: Blood vessels and nerves are two examples of body parts that bifurcate.
2. To split or to separate into two parts or directions: As Jane was driving through the forest, the road she was driving on suddenly bifurcated and she noticed that if she were to go to the right, it would take her up the hill; however, if she were to turn to the left, she would be going down the hill

This particular illustration from Google images provides an example of bifurcating a symbol on a sign so it shows drivers on a highway that the road will be splitting into two directions.

To limp or to halt; that is, to interrupt or to temporarily suspend a progression or movement.

The arrangement together so as to form words into a phrase: Some collocates are regular occurrences of lexical or dictionary terms that are connected close to each other; such as, "commit a crime" which helps a reader to see how a word is used and what it means.

1. A strong tendency to take place side by side with a frequency better than mere chance: A few words that collocate with each other include the following examples; "maiden" collocates with "voyage" or "maiden voyage"; "mortgage" collocates with "property".
2. To put words in a certain order or to arrange words naturally together : The word "college" collocates with "student" or "college student"; "quick" collocates with "temper"; however, "fast" does not collocate with "temper".

1. To give or to interchange thoughts, feelings, information, or the like, by writing, speaking, etc.: Please plan to communicate with Sam via his cellphone while he is on his holidays.
2. To express thoughts, feelings, or information easily or effectively: The doctor was able to communicate the significant medical information to his patient.