Meaning

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

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To set free, release or discharge (from obligations, debts, responsibility etc.).
2. (transitive, obsolete) To resolve; to explain; to solve.
3. (transitive) To pronounce free from or give absolution for a penalty, blame, or guilt.
4. (transitive, law) To pronounce not guilty; to grant a pardon for.
5. (transitive, theology) To grant a remission of sin; to give absolution to.
6. (transitive, theology) To remit a sin; to give absolution for a sin.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To finish; to accomplish.
8. (transitive) To pass a course or test; to gain credit for a class; to qualify academically.

Example Sentences

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.

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.

A Heretic may see the truth and seek redemption. He may be forgiven his past and will be absolved in death. A Traitor can never be forgiven. A Traitor will never find peace in this world or the next. There is nothing as wretched or as hated in all the world as a Traitor.

Abſolves the juſt, and dooms the guilty ſouls.

To make confession and to be absolved.

Word Forms

• absolves
• absolving
• absolved

Synonyms for absolve

Antonyms for absolve

Related Words

When Should You Use Absolve?

Use absolve when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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