discharging

Verb

discharge (third-person singular simple present discharges, present participle discharging, simple past and past participle discharged)

1. To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
   • Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the...
2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.
   • But in deede, the ſecret cauſe that brought Ageſilaus to conſent vnto this practiſe, was the greatnes of his dette which he ought, of the which he hoped to be diſcharged by chaunging of the ſtate and common wealth.1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “Agis and Cleomenes”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, →OCLC, page 851
3. To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
   • If he had / The present money to discharge the Jew.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
4. To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
   • The order for Daly's attendance was discharged.1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and...
5. To expel or let go.
   • Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.January 1, 1878, Herbert Spencer, Ceremonial Government, published in The Fortnightly Review No. 132
6. To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
   • They do discharge their shot of courtesy.c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...

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