absolve

UK/əbˈzɒlv/US/æbˈzɑlv/

verbC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,124 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: absolved, absolving, absolves

To absolve is to free somebody from blame or from a duty. Absolve him of responsibility.

It takes of or from and is used in religion, in law and in ordinary argument. To absolve somebody is a decision by whoever had the claim rather than a finding of fact.

Definitions of absolve

1verbabsolveTo free somebody from blame or from a duty.C1
“The report did not absolve anybody of anything.”

absolve is a freeing.

Where it comes from

Latin absolvere means to set free, from ab plus solvere, to loosen.

Proto-Indo-European
*lewh₁-
Latin
absolvō — set free, acquit
Middle English
absolven
English, today
absolve

Built from

ab · Latin — away from
solvō · Latin — loosen, free, release

First attested in the early 15th century. From Middle English absolven, from Latin absolvō (“set free, acquit”), from ab (“away from”) + solvō (“loosen, free, release”). a doublet of assoil.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

absolve in the wild

Afterwards, Lai Junchen reported to Wu Zetian that Shi was trying to absolve the Lius.
Shi Wuzi
If a penitent be in danger of death, any priest can absolve him, both from reserved censures and reserved sins.
Reserved cases
The canon penitentiary may absolve both residents and visitors within the diocese, as well as subjects of the diocese who are outside its boundaries.
Canon penitentiary
The interactive site also allows users to absolve or condemn various digital "sins" of the day.
Seven Digital Deadly Sins

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the solvō family

absolute dissolve

absolve — used about once every 5,793 pages · #10,124 · point at the bar for the others

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