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In “Take the Money and Run,” a 1976 earworm by the Steve Miller Band, the singer punctuates a song about teenage bandits with the catchy refrain “Go on, take the money and run.” Granted, the song probably wouldn’t have charted had it been titled “Abscond,” but the meaning would have been the same. Abscond is a word most often used in formal writing for when someone is running and hiding from the law, often with cash or other ill-gotten gains. In legal circles it’s used specifically when someone flies like an eagle from a jurisdiction to evade the legal process, as in “absconded from parole.” The history of abscond doesn’t evade scrutiny: it comes from the Latin verb abscondere, meaning “to hide away.” (That word’s root is condere, meaning “to conceal.”) Today, whether some joker absconds by going to the country to bury some treasure or by taking a jet airliner beyond the law’s reach, they are, in essence, hiding themselves away.
Examples of abscond in a Sentence
Sam Knight, New Yorker, 17 June 2025
The individual absconded and, due to his actions, was intercepted by Florida law enforcement.
—Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald, 11 June 2025
Swerve absconded the staple gun and stapled everything that moved.
—Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 26 May 2025
Gottesman ruled that through the date of the ruling, February 2024, Excel was owed virtually all of the commission back for those players who had absconded directly to WME — 90 percent of it, which amounts to 4.5 percent of the overall salary.
—Evan Drellich, New York Times, 22 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for abscond
Cite this Entry
“Abscond.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abscond. Accessed 28 Jun. 2025.
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Legal Definition
abscond
intransitive verb
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