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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
Evan Drellich, New York Times, 22 May 2025
The two men absconded with cash and credit cards before fleeing the scene.
—Christine Pelisek, People.com, 25 Apr. 2025
Rhea even absconded with a contract that did not have her name on it like a shady politician trying to overturn an election.
—Alfred Konuwa, Forbes.com, 19 Apr. 2025
An activist group called Robbed and Plundered Sardinia estimates that visitors abscond with about 5 tons of organic material each year.
—The Washington Post, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Apr. 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 6 Jun. 2025.
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Legal Definition
abscond
intransitive verb
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