You also abdicate responsibilities; ie you leave them, as a king leaves a throne. You can abdicate a philosophical position, just means you reject it.

Eg https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/abdicate

I didn't look at comments until today, I love that the primary thread I spawned was the semantic differences between absolve and abdicate. I appreciate the criticism, I learned quite a bit about the differences :)

I think people are trying to say abrogate. I've seen this usage a few times lately.

Correct, regarding his usage as a synonym for excuse, forgive or mitigate.

However, you can abdigate a responsibility. One can say for example that the CTO abdigated his responsibility to ensure the production database was protected and backed up.

Abdicate is correct here. It also means "to cast off", although that meaning is seldom used anywhere other than the phrase "abdicating responsibility".

Edit: not sure why I'm being down voted. I am correct: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abdicate