Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To set free, as from oppression, confinement, or foreign control.
- v. Chemistry To release (a gas, for example) from combination.
- v. Slang To obtain by illegal or stealthy action: tried to sell appliances that were liberated during the riot.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To set free; release from restraint or bondage; deliver: as, to liberate a slave or a prisoner; to liberate the mind from the shackles of prejudice.
- To disengage; separate from something else: as, to liberate a gas from a solid. Synonyms, Enfranchise, Manumit, etc. (see
emancipate ); Release, etc. (seedisengage ); disenthrall, ransom, discharge, let go, turn loose. - n. In old English law, a writ issued out of Chancery for the payment of pensions and similar royal allowances; also, a writ issued to the sheriff for the delivery of land and goods taken upon forfeits of recognizance.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive To free; to release from restraint or bondage; to set at liberty; to manumit; to disengage.
- v. transitive, euphemistic To steal or abscond with (something).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To release from restraint or bondage; to set at liberty; to free; to manumit; to disengage
WordNet 3.0
- v. grant freedom to
- v. release (gas or energy) as a result of a chemical reaction or physical decomposition
- v. grant freedom to; free from confinement
- v. give equal rights to; of women and minorities
Etymologies
- From Latin liberatus, past participle of liberare ("to set free, deliver"), from liber ("free"); see liberal. (Wiktionary)
- Latin līberāre, līberāt-, from līber, free; see leudh- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He used the word liberate, that this is going to liberate Arlen Specter to work with us on health care.”
“But we were never the allies of the Athenians in their design of subjugating Hellas; we were really the allies of the Hellenes, whom we sought to liberate from the Persians.”
“She delves into the language itself, a language she wants to liberate from the fetters of race.”
“Assuming that General Halleck will complete the work he has so successfully commenced, he will liberate from the forced pressure put upon it by the Secessionists the whole amount of loyal sentiment diffused through the Border States, and, from being held in abeyance, it will become dominant.”
“Liberal is derived from the word liberate, ... meaning "freedom", and I can ` t see anything wrong with being free to choose a liberal to the supreme court.”
“So we're going to fight over the use of the word liberate now?”
“Because, as the president has said, particularly vis-a-vis Afghanistan, we did not go into Afghanistan to conquer; we went in to liberate, which is exactly how the people of Afghanistan reacted when they had their cities and their towns returned to them.”
“Here are the very same people we had been sent to Iraq to liberate - in other words to help and get out of a bad situation." ...”
“The people who invented the modern piece were trying to "liberate" women from the underpinings of the former century and make something that could be worn with the new fashions.”
Modest Feminine Dress From the Pages of 1990 Victoria Magazine
“It remained for the 20th century to "liberate" them from their good sense and their adequate clothing.”
Modest Feminine Dress From the Pages of 1990 Victoria Magazine
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘liberate’.
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Kangaroo Words
Words containing letters in sequence, together or apart, that form a definition or instance of the subsuming word. E.g., conTAmINaTe = the kangaroo word. TAINT = the joey. Theme from a NYT X-word ...
encourage, chariot, precipitation, neurotic, feaster, unsightly, charisma, inheritor, masculine, honorable, contaminate, regulate and 103 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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NakedFringe's Words
masticate, chamber, orchid, mandolin, yellow, pomegranate, conundrum, paradox, gyrate, calamitous, opalescent, cacophony and 533 more...
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Inner B
Words with the letter b within the word, not just as the initial or last letter.
remember, maybe, able, unable, nimble, cable, reusable, thimble, cymbal, capable, tremble, enable and 143 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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Free (adjective)
Adjectives meaning free
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Russo Vocab Test
ostracize, innumerable, chiffonier, qualm, compulsory, sadism, masochism, falsetto, liberate, rile, pacifist, unscrupulous and 56 more...
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lorilori's Words
abattoir, eviscerate, liberate, asshat, functional, vitriol, misanthropic, tofu, hegemony, word, unacceptable, tatterdemalion and 19 more...
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#001
liberate, harvest, someday, cocoon, foolish, yours, songbird, seashells, inevitable, disastrous, shatter
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To Free or Release
Words meaning to free or release
Tweets
Looking for tweets for liberate.
oroboros LibEraTe Sep 6, 2010