Library / English Dictionary

ACQUIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: acquitted    , acquitting   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pronounce not guilty of criminal charges

Example:

The suspect was cleared of the murder charges

Synonyms:

acquit; assoil; clear; discharge; exculpate; exonerate

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "acquit" is one way to...):

judge; label; pronounce (pronounce judgment on)

"Acquit" entails doing...:

evaluate; judge; pass judgment (form a critical opinion of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "acquit"):

vindicate (clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting proof)

whitewash (exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data)

purge (clear of a charge)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sentence example:

They want to acquit the prisoners

Antonym:

convict (find or declare guilty)

Derivation:

acquittal (a judgment of not guilty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Behave in a certain manner

Example:

They conducted themselves well during these difficult times

Synonyms:

acquit; bear; behave; carry; comport; conduct; deport

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "acquit" is one way to...):

bear; carry; hold (support or hold in a certain manner)

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "acquit"):

fluster (be flustered; behave in a confused manner)

assert; put forward (insist on having one's opinions and rights recognized)

deal (behave in a certain way towards others)

walk around (behave in a certain manner or have certain properties)

pose; posture (behave affectedly or unnaturally in order to impress others)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Credits

 Context examples: 

You are acquitted, Captain Crocker.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He has changed his hour of going, I suppose, that is all, or I may be mistaken, I might not attend; and walked back to her chair, recomposed, and with the comfortable hope of having acquitted herself well.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

What charade Colonel Dent and his party played, what word they chose, how they acquitted themselves, I no longer remember; but I still see the consultation which followed each scene: I see Mr. Rochester turn to Miss Ingram, and Miss Ingram to him; I see her incline her head towards him, till the jetty curls almost touch his shoulder and wave against his cheek; I hear their mutual whisperings; I recall their interchanged glances; and something even of the feeling roused by the spectacle returns in memory at this moment.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You do acquit me, then, of anything wrong?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

To leave this metropolis, said Mr. Micawber, and my friend Mr. Thomas Traddles, without acquitting myself of the pecuniary part of this obligation, would weigh upon my mind to an insupportable extent.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“I think, Nigel,” said Sir Oliver, striding across to the little knight, “that we should all acquit ourselves better had we our none-meat, for the sun is high in the heaven.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Twice I actually hired myself as an under-mate in a Greenland whaler, and acquitted myself to admiration.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Her heart and her judgment were equally against Edmund's decision: she could not acquit his unsteadiness, and his happiness under it made her wretched.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Emma was very willing now to acquit her of having seduced Mr. Dixon's actions from his wife, or of any thing mischievous which her imagination had suggested at first.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I acquit Edward of essential misconduct.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)