absolve

Verb

absolve (third-person singular simple present absolves, present participle absolving, simple past and past participle absolved)

1. (transitive) 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.1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series

   Synonyms:

   excuse, exempt, free, release, befree, deliver, discharge, disentangle, extricate, let go

2. (obsolete, transitive) To resolve; to explain; to solve.
   • […] he that can monsters tame, laboures atchive, riddles absolve […]1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 331-332
   • we ſhall not abſolve the doubt.1650, Thomas Browne, “Of the blackneſſe of Negroes”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 6th book, page 276

   Synonyms:

   decipher, elucidate, work out, clarify, describe, direct, disclose, elaborate, explain, expound

3. (transitive) To pronounce free from or give absolution for a penalty, blame, or guilt.
   • 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.1993, Rick Priestley, Andy Chambers, Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook, Second edition, Games Workshop, page 22

   Synonyms:

   acquit, exculpate, exonerate, pardon, remit, vindicate, acquittance, assoil, assoilzie, clear

4. (transitive) To pronounce not guilty; to grant a pardon for.
   • Abſolves the juſt, and dooms the guilty ſouls.1725, Homer, “Book XI”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 121, line 702

   Synonyms:

   amnesty, forgive, remit

5. (transitive) To grant a remission of sin; to give absolution to.
   • To make confession and to be absolved.1597, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 3, scene 5

   Synonyms:

   shrive

6. (transitive) 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.1788, Edward Gibbon, chapter LXVII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume VI, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 447

   Synonyms:

   remit

7. (obsolete, transitive) To finish; to accomplish.
   • and the work begun, how ſoon / Abſolv'd,1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...

   Synonyms:

   complete, conclude, finalize, consummate, discontinue, do, end, finish, fullcome, get through

8. (transitive) To pass a course or test; to gain credit for a class; to qualify academically.