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liberate

Pronunciation: /ˈlɪbəɹeɪt/

The English word “liberate” has 10 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. Often followed by from: to allow or cause (someone or something) to be free; to set free, to release.
  2. To free (someone or something) from discriminatory or oppressive attitudes, inhibition, or restraint.
  3. To release (someone) from slavery; to manumit.
  4. To free (a place such as a country, or the residents thereof) from an occupying force, or from oppression such as unjust rule.
  5. To cause (energy or a substance) to be released through a chemical reaction or physical decomposition.
  6. To take (property belonging to someone else) by force or theft; to loot, to rob, to steal.

adjective

  1. Freed, released; free.

noun

  1. A writ issued out of the Chancery to authorize the Exchequer to pay a debt, pension, etc., on behalf of the Crown.
  2. A writ issued to a jailer to release a prisoner on bail.
  3. A writ issued to a sheriff to release property (goods or land) from their custody.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin līberātus (“freed, liberated; absolved, acquitted; released”); see English -ate (suffix forming verbs, and used as the ending of participial adjectives and obsolete past participles from Latin). Līberātus is the perfect passive participle of līberō (“to free, liberate; to absolve, acquit; to release”), from līber (“free, unrestricted”), + -ō (suffix forming regular…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.