absolve

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To set free, release or discharge (from obligations, debts, responsibility etc.).

   • You will absolve a subject from his allegiance.
   • Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.
   • The Committee divided, and Halifax was absolved by a majority of fourteen.
2. 2

   To resolve

   To resolve; to explain; to solve.

   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 331-332, […] he that can monsters tame, laboures atchive, riddles absolve […]
   • we ſhall not abſolve the doubt.
3. 3

   To pronounce free from or give absolution for a penalty, blame, or guilt.

4. ›+ 5 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To pronounce not guilty

      To pronounce not guilty; to grant a pardon for.

      • Abſolves the juſt, and dooms the guilty ſouls.
   2. 5

      To grant a remission of sin

      To grant a remission of sin; to give absolution to.

      • To make confession and to be absolved.
   3. 6

      To remit a sin

      To remit a sin; to give absolution for a sin.

      • In his name I abſolve your perjury and ſanctify your arms: follow my footſteps in the paths of glory and ſalvation; and if ſtill ye have ſcruples, devolve on my head the puniſhment and the ſin.
   4. 7

      To finish

      To finish; to accomplish.

      • and the work begun, how ſoon / Abſolv'd,
   5. 8

      To pass a course or test

      To pass a course or test; to gain credit for a class; to qualify academically.

The neighborhood

• neighborabsolutionary
• neighborabsolutive
• neighborabsolutory
• neighborabsolvatory