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Meaning of absolve | Babel Free

Verb CEFR C2 Specialized
əbˈzɒlv

Definitions

  1. To set free, release or discharge (from obligations, debts, responsibility etc.).
    transitive
  2. To resolve; to explain; to solve.
    obsolete, transitive
  3. To pronounce free from or give absolution for a penalty, blame, or guilt.
    transitive
  4. To pronounce not guilty; to grant a pardon for.
    transitive
  5. To grant a remission of sin; to give absolution to.
    transitive
  6. To remit a sin; to give absolution for a sin.
    transitive
  7. To finish; to accomplish.
    obsolete, transitive
  8. To pass a course or test; to gain credit for a class; to qualify academically.
    transitive

Equivalents

Examples

“You will absolve a subject from his allegiance.”
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.”
“The Committee divided, and Halifax was absolved by a majority of fourteen.”
“1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, lines 331-332, […] he that can monsters tame, laboures atchive, riddles absolve […]”
“we ſhall not abſolve the doubt.”
“A Heretic may see the truth and seek redemption. He may be forgiven his past and will be absolved in death. A Traitor can never be forgiven. A Traitor will never find peace in this world or the next. There is nothing as wretched or as hated in all the world as a Traitor.”
“Abſolves the juſt, and dooms the guilty ſouls.”
“To make confession and to be absolved.”
“In his name I abſolve your perjury and ſanctify your arms: follow my footſteps in the paths of glory and ſalvation; and if ſtill ye have ſcruples, devolve on my head the puniſhment and the ſin.”
“and the work begun, how ſoon / Abſolv'd,”

CEFR level

C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.
See all C2 English words →

See also

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