Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To free from slavery or bondage; emancipate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To release from slavery; liberate from personal bondage or servitude; set free, as a slave; emancipate.
- Synonyms Enfranchise, Liberate, etc. See emancipate.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To release from slavery; to liberate from personal bondage or servitude; to free, as a slave.
WordNet 3.0
- v. free from slavery or servitude
Etymologies
- From Latin manumittere, from pre-Classical Latin manu emittere, literally ‘send out from one’s hand’. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English manumitten, from Old French manumitter, from Latin manūmittere : manū, ablative of manus, hand; see man-2 in Indo-European roots + mittere, to send from. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is evident, that others cannot "manumit" for them.”
“The freeing of enslaved persons – manumission – was not regulated by statute in South Carolina until 1712, when the colonial legislature decreed that slaveholders or the colonial governor or provincial council could manumit enslaved persons for good cause.”
“Under Virginian colonial law, a slaveholder could manumit slaves by a special act of the legislature.”
“From 1782 until 1806, any slaveholder in Virginia could manumit slaves for any reason, either in his will or while still living, by any other instrument in writing, under his or her hand and seal.”
“After the Revolution, at the behest of petitions from the Quakers and the Methodists, the Virginia state government passed a very liberal manumission law in 1782 I mean liberal towards white slave-holders who wanted to manumit; freed blacks still suffered under a racial police state.”
“When this is done, go down with me to the slave market and sell me as thou boughtest me to whoso will buy me with my blemish; but thou shalt not manumit me, for I have no handicraft whereby to gain my living; 99 and this my demand is a matter of law which the doctors have laid down in the Chapter of Emancipation.”
“Or an insolvent master might manumit his slaves to thwart his creditors.”
“Even if a man wishes to manumit one of his slaves, and is given permission to do so, the freed slave is required to leave the colony within a short time-or he may be captured and enslaved by anyone who chooses to take him.”
“If our whole family economic situation had that base, would we manumit all our slaves?”
“Our praetor-governor Nerva scurried off to Sicily and began to manumit the Italians, who number about a quarter of the total grain slaves.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘manumit’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Undo
A list of terms that denote separating one thing from another, or deconstructing a thing into its parts or to a former state. E.g., untie, divorce, unscramble.
untie, divorce, unscramble, disunite, disjoin, undo, separate, disassemble, uncouple, unhitch, disassociate, disaffiliate and 185 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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fredrx's beautiful sounding list
two most beautiful words when put together
womb, philistine, poignant, wombastic, eschelon, macabre, precipitous, panache, misogynist, placebo, cacophony, aplomb and 43 more...
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Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
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Learned
ambergris, andiron, aphelion, austral, bellicose, boreal, bravura, chaff, chicanery, creditable, credulous, decamp and 223 more...
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Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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More Words I Should Have Learned for ...
emetic, emend, emollient, emolument, encomiastic, aeon, epaulet, epistemology, eulogy, euphony, evince, exchequer and 97 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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reza's list
man
human
humanism
humanity
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for manumit.
bilby "The prime reason, I suspect, will be that we don't need any liberator to manumit our 'corporate slaves' because we've never had any."
- Victor Navasky, 'Time is money', The Nation, 17 July 1989. Mar 5, 2009