From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishabscondab‧scond /əbˈskɒnd, æb- $ æbˈskɑːnd/ verb [intransitive] formal 1 ESCAPEto escape from a place where you are being keptabscond from The boy absconded from a children’s home.► see thesaurus at escape2 LEAVE A PLACEto secretly leave somewhere, taking with you something that does not belong to youabscond with He has to convince a judge that he wasn’t going to abscond with the money.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
abscond• Bedford had a clear memory of the day the news had struck that Schuyler had absconded.• Clarke surrounded the building, but the brothers had been forewarned and had absconded.• The other seven had in the meantime absconded.• They could stay if they so chose or they could abscond.• That incident led to the man absconding from the prison just weeks before his sentence was due to end.• Patients who absconded were always accepted back, whether their medical condition warranted it or not.• The boy admitted five charges of joyriding and absconding while on bail.• Scroggins and Payne, Messrs, debt collectors and employers of Captain Helves, who abscond with part of their funds.abscond with• Royson absconded with money belonging to 40 clients.Origin abscond (1500-1600) Latin abscondere, from abs- “away” + condere “to hide” 