Dictionary

manumit en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˌmænjəˈmɪt/ (General-American)
• /ˌmænjʊˈmɪt/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Middle English manumitten, from Latin manūmittere, from pre-Classical Latin manū ēmittere (literally “send out from one’s hand”).

Meanings

1. (transitive) To release (someone) from slavery; to free.
   • Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. 1842 February 22, Abraham Lincoln, “Address Before the Springfield Washingtonian Temperance Society”, in Arthur Brooks Lapsley, editor, The Papers and Writings of Abraham Lincoln:
   • Persons taken in war were considered at the absolute control of their captors, and were therefore, de facto, slaves; and the children of a female slave followed the condition of their mother, and belonged to her master. But masters could manumit their slaves, who thus became Roman citizens, with some restrictions. 1867, John Lord, The Old Roman World: the Grandeur and Failure of Its Civilization:
   • […]Lungs, I will manumit thee from the Fornace; / I will reſtore thee thy complexion, Puffe, / Lost in the embers; and repayre this brayne, / Hurt with the fume o'the Mettalls. 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii:
   • Ruth wept much but Sara set her beauty to a fierce grimness which, even when, as you shall hear later, she was manumitted, she never entirely lost. 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked, Arbor House Publishing:

Forms

Deriveds

manumittor · manumitter

Relateds

manumission · mission · manumissive

Synonyms

liberate · emancipate · enfranchise

Translations (22)

frm affranchir (to release (someone) from slavery) · pl wyzwolić (to release (someone) from slavery) · pl wyzwalać (to release (someone) from slavery) · it liberare (to release (someone) from slavery) · fi vapauttaa (to release (someone) from slavery) · ru отпуска́ть (to release (someone) from slavery) · es liberar (to release (someone) from slavery) · pl oswobadzać (to release (someone) from slavery) · pl oswobodzić (to release (someone) from slavery) · fr affranchir (to release (someone) from slavery) · de freilassen (to release (someone) from slavery) · ms memerdekakan (to release (someone) from slavery) · it emancipare (to release (someone) from slavery) · frm manumettre (to release (someone) from slavery) · de freisprechen (to release (someone) from slavery) · pt manumitir (to release (someone) from slavery) · it affrancare (to release (someone) from slavery) · fr manumettre (to release (someone) from slavery) · hu felszabadít (to release (someone) from slavery) · ca manumetre (to release (someone) from slavery) · es manumitir (to release (someone) from slavery) · ru освобожда́ть (to release (someone) from slavery)