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View synonyms for absolve

absolve

[ ab-zolv, -solv ]

verb (used with object)

, ab·solved, ab·solv·ing.
  1. to free from guilt or blame or their consequences:

    The court absolved her of guilt in his death.

    Synonyms: clear, exculpate

    Antonyms: blame

  2. to set free or release, as from some duty, obligation, or responsibility (usually followed by from ):

    to be absolved from one's oath.

    Synonyms: exempt, liberate

  3. to grant pardon for.

    Synonyms: forgive, excuse

  4. Ecclesiastical.
    1. to grant or pronounce remission of sins to.
    2. to remit (a sin) by absolution.
    3. to declare (censure, as excommunication) removed.


absolve

/ əbˈzɒlv /

verb

  1. usually foll by from to release from blame, sin, punishment, obligation, or responsibility
  2. to pronounce not guilty; acquit; pardon


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Derived Forms

  • abˈsolver, noun
  • abˈsolvable, adjective

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Other Words From

  • ab·solva·ble adjective
  • ab·solvent adjective noun
  • ab·solver noun
  • unab·solved adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of absolve1

1525–35; < Latin absolvere, equivalent to ab- ab- + solvere to loosen; solve

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Word History and Origins

Origin of absolve1

C15: from Latin absolvere to free from, from ab- 1+ solvere to make loose

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Synonym Study

Absolve, acquit, exonerate all mean to free from blame. Absolve is a general word for this idea. To acquit is to release from a specific and usually formal accusation: The court must acquit the accused if there is not enough evidence of guilt. To exonerate is to consider a person clear of blame or consequences for an act (even when the act is admitted), or to justify the person for having done it: to be exonerated for a crime committed in self-defense.

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Example Sentences

She careens her way across the globe, looking for clues to absolve her and drawing police attention in the process.

From Time

The company denied the claims, pointing out that its 2014 purchase of the hospitals included contract language absolving it of any future liability for the retirement plan.

While Winner’s less-than-cautious handling of the material might have led the NSA to her eventually, Poitras said in an interview that that should not absolve the Intercept of responsibility to handle the information carefully.

I’m not proposing to tell you the magical policy that will fix this, or to judge what the platforms would have to do to absolve themselves of this responsibility.

When you’re ludicrously late to school or work, or when you miss your brother’s wedding, all you need is to invoke me, traffic, and your fellow Californians will absolve you of your tardiness.

From Fortune

Many were just eager to forget, absolve, or overlook serious accusations, simply because doing so would be hugely convenient.

Yet the essay does not absolve the Left from paranoid thinking.

On the one hand, he is trying to absolve Skyler of his sins.

Social media, Sharif emphasized, has been an indispensable tool for Saudi women “to absolve the gender apartheid.”

Will they absolve him of stealing papal documents and leaking them to the press, and let him go?

And yet, how is it possible to absolve her for her inexplicable behaviour to me?

"Your word was given to me, and I absolve you from it," she said.

I cannot yet absolve you from your promise since my own actions in Austria have been far from conventional.

Can you pretend an excuse now may absolve you, Or any thing like honest, to bring you off?

Decide to do one or the other quickly: to punish, or to absolve.

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