I thought this word meant steal, but now I learn it means simply run and hide. That impression came, I think from these lines from Casablanca, “I’ve often speculated why you don’t return to America. Did you abscond with the church funds? Run off with a senator’s wife? I like to think you killed a man. It’s the Romantic in me.” After learning the definition and thinking about it, it was used properly and I should have figured it out on my own.
abscond, v.
1. trans. To hide away, to conceal (anything). Obs. or arch.
2. refl. (Obs. or arch.)
3. intr. (by omission of the refl. pron.) ‘To hide oneself; to retire from the public view: generally used of persons in debt, or criminals eluding the law.’ J.; to go away hurriedly and secretly.
Neh 