emancipate

Verb

emancipate (third-person singular simple present emancipates, present participle emancipating, simple past and past participle emancipated)

1. (transitive) To set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.
   • [T]his was his [God's] first work,to redeem, to vindicate them from the usurper, to deliver them from the intruder, to emancipate them from the tyrant, to cancel the covenant between hell and them, and restore them. so far to their liberty, as that they might come to their first Master if they...1626 January 4 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Donne, “Sermon III. Preached on Christmas-Day, 1625.”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume I, London: John...
   • Enlightened ministers like Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg enacted a comprehensive series of domestic reforms. They transformed backward, semifeudal Prussia into a modern state: abolishing serfdom, granting self-government to towns, with elected town councils...2005, Robert M. Citino, “‘Disgrace and Redemption’: The Prussian Army in the Napoleonic Wars”, in The German Way of War: From the Thirty Years’ War to the Third Reich (Modern War Studies), Lawrence...
   1. (transitive) To cause (a place) to be free from the colonization or rule of another entity.
      • to emancipate a colony
      • Abundant harvests and patient industry amply supplied the wants of Presidio and Mission. Isolated from the family of nations, the wars which shook the world concerned them not so much as the last earthquake; the struggle that emancipated their sister colonies on the other side of the continent to...1869, Bret Harte, “[Stories.] The Right Eye of the Commander.”, in The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (The Riverside Library), Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company […]...
   2. (also, reflexive, transitive) Often followed by from: chiefly with reference to slavery in the United States, and in Central and South America: to set free (oneself or someone) from imprisonment, or from serfdom or slavery.
      • to pass a law emancipating slaves
      • The number of prisoners whom [George] Jeffreys transported was eight hundred and forty-one. These men, more wretched than their associates who suffered death, were distributed into gangs, and bestowed on persons who enjoyed favour at court. The conditions of the gift were that the convicts should...1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter V, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 651
   3. (transitive) To release (a minor) from the legal authority and custody which a parent or guardian has over them; also (Ancient Rome, historical), to release (a child) from the legal authority of the paterfamilias.
      • The child was emancipated from her parents
      • The Procreation, or Children of a Common-vvealth, are thoſe vve call Plantations, or Colonies; […] And vvhen a Colony is ſetled, they are either a Common-vvealth of themſelves, diſcharged of their ſubjection to their Soveraign that ſent them, (as hath been done by many Common-vvealths of antient...1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of the Nutrition, and Procreation of a Common-wealth”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson]...
2. (also, figuratively, reflexive, transitive) Often followed by from: to free (oneself or someone, or something) from some constraint or controlling influence (especially when evil or undue); also, to free (oneself or someone) from mental oppression.
   • Education can emancipate us from error or prejudices.
   • The vvhole Epiſtle deſerves the Reading, for the excellent Advice he gives on this and other Subjects; and hovv from many troubleſome and ſlaviſh Impertinencies, grovvn into Habit and Cuſtom (old as he vvas) he had Emancipated and freed himſelf: […]1699, John Evelyn, “Dressing”, in Acetaria. A Discourse of Sallets. […], London: […] B[enjamin] Tooke […], →OCLC, page 152
3. (obsolete, transitive) To place (something) under one's control; specifically (chiefly reflexive), to cause (oneself or someone) to become the slave of another person; to enslave; also, to subjugate (oneself or someone).
   • He that vvill ſinne vnto death, or ſinne ſo farre as to put himſelfe into the ſtate of damnation; muſt ſinne ſo farre, as vtterly to ſeparate, and cut off himſelfe from Chriſt, vtterly to extirpate all the ſeeds and habits of true and ſauing grace vvhich are vvithin him, and vvholly to emancipate...1626, William Prynne, “An Answer to the Arguments which may be Objected”, in The Perpetuitie of a Regenerate Mans Estate. […], London: […] William Iones […], →OCLC, page 321
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To become free from the oppression or restraint of another.
   • We shall hardly induce black men to believe that if their stomachs be full, it matters little about their brains. They already dimly perceive that the paths of peace winding between honest toil and dignified manhood call for the guidance of skilled thinkers, the loving, reverent comradeship between...1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of the Training of Black Men”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, pages...

Adjective

UK/ɪˈmæn(t)sɪpət/US/əˈmæn(t)səˌpət/

emancipate (comparative more emancipate, superlative most emancipate)

1. (obsolete except poetic) Synonym of emancipated (“having been set free from someone's control, or from some constraint; at liberty, free”).
   • For I doe take the conſideration in generall, and at large of hvmane natvre to be fit to be emancipate, & made a knovvledge by it ſelf; […]1605, Francis Bacon, “The Second Booke”, in The Twoo Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the Proficience and Aduancement of Learning, Diuine and Humane, London: […] [Thomas Purfoot and Thomas Creede] for...
   • VVe have no ſlaves at home.—Then vvhy abroad? / And they themſelves once ferried o'er the vvave / That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd.1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 47

   Synonyms:

   emancipated