Acquit
[ə'kwɪt]
Definition
(verb.) pronounce not guilty of criminal charges; 'The suspect was cleared of the murder charges'.
Editor: Milton--From WordNet
Definition
(p. p.) Acquitted; set free; rid of.
(v. t.) To discharge, as a claim or debt; to clear off; to pay off; to requite.
(v. t.) To pay for; to atone for.
(v. t.) To set free, release or discharge from an obligation, duty, liability, burden, or from an accusation or charge; -- now followed by of before the charge, formerly by from; as, the jury acquitted the prisoner; we acquit a man of evil intentions.
(v. t.) To clear one's self.
(v. t.) To bear or conduct one's self; to perform one's part; as, the soldier acquitted himself well in battle; the orator acquitted himself very poorly.
Inputed by Brenda
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Discharge (from an accusation), clear, release, absolve, exonerate, exculpate, excuse, pardon, forgive, quit, set free.
Edited by Ian
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Discharge, exonerate, absolve, exculpate, release, dismiss, liberate, pardon,
ANT:Charge, accuse, impeach, constrain, implicate, bind, compel, condemn, oblige,sentence
Checked by Juliana
Definition
v.t. to free: to release: to settle as a debt: to behave or conduct (one's self): to declare innocent (with of before the thing of which acquitted):—pr.p. acquit′ting; pa.p. acquit′ted.—ns. Acquit′tal a judicial discharge from an accusation; Acquit′tance a discharge from an obligation or debt: a receipt in evidence of such a discharge.—v.t. (Shak.) to acquit clear.
Editor: Nell
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream that you are acquitted of a crime, denotes that you are about to come into possession of valuable property, but there is danger of a law suit before obtaining possession. To see others acquitted, foretells that your friends will add pleasure to your labors.
Checked by Elaine
Examples
- I have a business charge to acquit myself of. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- My feelings are at present in a state of dreadful indecision; I wish to acquit you, but certainty on either side will be ease to what I now suffer. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- But this does not acquit _him_, Mrs. Weston; and I must say, that I think him greatly to blame. Jane Austen. Emma.
- This from me may appear to strangers like personal pique, but all who know me will acquit me of having ever, in my life, coveted the society of fools. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- I understand and admire this generous anxiety to acquit him, without waiting until his innocence may, or may not, be proved. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Acquit me of impertinent curiosity, my dear Mrs. Bounderby. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- I know myself well enough to acquit any one, who does not know me, and still more those who do, from any such intention. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- He had a penny too--a gift of Sowerberry's after some funeral in which he had acquitted himself more than ordinarily well--in his pocket. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- But she was acquitted. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- In 1788 Warren Hastings, a second great Indian administrator, was impeached and acquitted (1792). H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- No; she was acquitted. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- The event acquitted her of all the fancifulness, and all the selfishness of imaginary complaints. Jane Austen. Emma.
- You are acquitted, Captain Crocker. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- A score or so of years ago, that woman was tried at the Old Bailey for murder, and was acquitted. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- After all, this was an unexpectedly easy way of acquitting her debt; and had she not reasons of her own for wishing to be civil to Mr. Rosedale? Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- And the deeper he went in domesticity the more did the sense of acquitting himself and acting with propriety predominate over any other satisfaction. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Edited by Denny