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ecline formally; to refuse to own or acknowledge as belonging to one; to disclaim; as, to renounce a title to land or to a throne.

The act of disclaiming or rejecting; renunciation. Shak.

One who renounces.

To renounce. [Obs.] "They abrenounce and cast them off." Latimer.

To give up absolutely; to forsake entirely ; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all connection with or concern on; to desert, as a person to whom one owes allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender. Hope was overthrown, yet could not be abandoned. I. Taylor.

To renounce; to relinquish; -- said of authority, a trust, duty, right, etc. He abdicates all right to be his own governor. Burke. The understanding abdicates its functions. Froude.

To renounce upon oath; to forswear; to disavow; as, to abjure allegiance to a prince. To abjure the realm, is to swear to abandon it forever.

One who renounces the world and secludes himself, usually for religious reasons; a hermit; a recluse. [Written by some authors anachoret.] Our Savior himself . . . did not choose an anchorite's or a monastic life, but a social and affable way of conversing with mortals. Boyle.

One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession.

To renounce totally a religious belief once professed; to forsake one's church, the faith or principles once held, or the party to which one has previously adhered. He apostatized from his old faith in facts, took to believing in Carlyle.

One of a sect of ancient Christians, who, in supposed imitation of the first believers, renounced all their possessions.

duties, etc. To declare off, to recede from an agreement, undertaking, contract, etc.; to renounce. -- To declare one's self, to avow one's opinion; to show openly what one thinks, or which side he espouses.

To renounce or dissolve all bonds of affiance, faith, or obligation with; to reject, refuse, or renounce. [Obs.] I defy the surety and the bond. Chaucer. For thee I have defied my constant mistress. Beau. & Fl.

To renounce the natural rights and duties of; to deprive of citizenship; to denationalize. [R.] They also claimed the privilege, when aggrieved, of denaturalizing themselves, or, in other words, of publicly renouncing their allegiance to their sovereign, and of enlisting under the banners of his enemy. Prescott.…

To refuse (to do something or to accept something); to reject; to decline; to renounce. [Obs.] "If you deny to dance." Shak.

To renounce all claim to deny; ownership of, or responsibility for; to disown; to disavow; to reject. He calls the gods to witness their offense; Disclaims the war, asserts his innocence. Dryden. He disclaims the authority of Jesus. Farmer.

One who disclaims, disowns, or renounces.

To renounce the profession or pursuit of. His arms, which he had vowed to disprofess. Spenser.

venture upon. [R.] The business must be enterprised this night. Dryden. What would I not renounce or enterprise for you! T. Otway.

Reflexively, as To expatriate one's self: To withdraw from one's native country; to renounce the rights and liabilities of citizenship where one is born, and become a citizen of another country.