emancipate

present singular third person emancipates · participle present emancipating · participle past emancipated · past emancipated · first person past singular emancipated · archaic present second person singular emancipatest · past second person singular emancipated · archaic past second person singular emancipatedst · present singular third person emancipates · archaic present singular third person emancipateth · past singular third person emancipated · past plural emancipated · past subjunctive emancipated · participle present emancipating · participle past emancipated

1. transitiveTo set free (a person or group) from the oppression or restraint of another; to liberate.

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   [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 would: this was redeeming.

   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 W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 54

   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 replacing royal appointees; and formally emancipating the Jews, granting them full citizenship for the first time, even if full social acceptance remained wanting.

   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, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, →ISBN, page 128

   1. transitiveTo cause (a place) to be free from the colonization or rule of another entity.

      to emancipate a colony

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      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 them had no suggestiveness.

      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 […], →OCLC, page 185

      Synonyms: decolonize

   2. alsoreflexivetransitiveOften 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

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      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 be carried beyond sea as slaves, that they should not be emancipated for ten years, and that the place of their banishment should be some West Indian island.

      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

      Into this house he brought Eliza; and, on condition of her living with him, she and her children were to be emancipated. She resided with him there nine years, with servants to attend upon her, and provided with every comfort and luxury of life.

      1853, Solomon Northup, chapter III, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, →OCLC, page 52

      Then the long-headed man with care-chiselled face who sat in the White House [Abraham Lincoln] saw the inevitable, and emancipated the slaves of rebels on New Year's, 1863.

      1903 April 18, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of the Dawn of Freedom”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 15

      Synonyms: disenslave, enfranchise, manumit, unenslave

   3. transitivelawTo 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

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      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 time,) in vvhich caſe the Common-vvealth from vvhich they vvent, vvas called their Metropolis, or Mother, and requires no more of them, then Fathers require of the Children, vvhom they emancipate, and make free from their domeſtique government, vvhich is Honour, and Friendſhip; or elſe they remain united to their Metropolis, as vvere the Colonies of the people of Rome; and then they are no Common-vvealths themſelves, but Provinces, and parts of the Common-vvealth that ſent them.

      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] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 131

      [I]f his [the paterfamilias'] wife had not passed in manum—and that was common enough even during the republic and universal in the later empire—she did not become a member of his family; she remained a member of the family in which she was born, or, if its head was deceased, or she had been emancipated, was the sole member of a family of her own. Both sons and daughters on emancipation ceased to be of the family of the paterfamilias who had emancipated them.

      1886, James Muirhead, “Institutions of the Private Law”, in Historical Introduction to the Private Law of Rome, Edinburgh: A[dam] and C[harles] Black, →OCLC, section 9 (The Family Organisation), page 25

      Enlistment for active duty with a branch of the armed forces emancipates a minor. In many jurisdictions this emancipation only lasts during the period of active service.

      1981, Paula Downey [et al.], “Removing the Disabilities of Minority: About Emancipation, Partial or Complete”, in The Legal Status of Adolescents 1980, Washington, D.C.: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Department of Health and Human Services, →OCLC, page 31

      When I was fourteen, I was emancipated by the courts. It's no secret that I had to part ways from my mother because we had driven our relationship into the ground.

      2015, Drew Barrymore, “My Beautiful Laundrette”, in Wildflower, New York, N.Y.: Dutton, →ISBN, page 31

2. alsofigurativelyreflexivetransitiveOften 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.

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   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

   And it is on all Hands agreed that there is need of great Toil and Labour of the Mind, to Emancipate our Thoughts from particular Objects, and raiſe them to thoſe Sublime Speculations that are converſant about abſtract Ideas.

   1710, George Berkeley, “Introduction”, in A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. […], Dublin: […] Aaron Rhames, for Jeremy [i.e., Jeremiah] Pepyat, […], →OCLC, § 14, page 20

   At all events, from that day I was emancipated from modern Puritanism.

   1850, [Charles Kingsley], “Sandy Mackaye”, in Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, page 54

   Thou [God] emancipatest and restorest the poor sinner by the finished work of Thy Beloved Son [Jesus].

   1851, George MacDonnell, “Twenty-ninth Day, Morning Prayer, Wednesday”, in A Book of Devotions and Sermons, Designed Chiefly for the Use of Mariners, Montreal, Que.: Armour & Ramsay; […], →OCLC, page 125

   Wyclif [John Wycliffe], […] sought to emancipate the human conscience from reliance upon any earthly authority intermediate between the soul and its Maker, […]

   1879, Adolphus William Ward, “Chaucer’s Times”, in Chaucer (English Men of Letters), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 29

3. obsoletetransitiveTo 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).

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   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 and inthrall himſelfe to the ſeruice of ſinne and Sathan: […]

   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. intransitiveobsoleteTo become free from the oppression or restraint of another.

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   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 the black lowly and the black men emancipated by training and culture.

   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 107–108

comparative more emancipate · superlative most emancipate

1. obsolete except poeticSynonym of emancipated (“having been set free from someone's control, or from some constraint; at liberty, free”).

   This be thy chosen haunt—emancipate / From passion's dreams, a freeman, and alone, / I rise and trace its devious course.

   c. 1800 (date written), S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “The Picture, or, The Lover’s Resolution”, in Sibylline Leaves: A Collection of Poems, London: Rest Fenner, […], published 1817, →OCLC, page 133

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   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 Henrie Tomes, […], →OCLC, folio 36, verso

   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