▪ I. † manumit, n. Obs.
[f. manumit v. (? as if pa. pple.).]
A freed bondman.
| 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 276 Effected by the labor of twenty thousand manumitts. |
▪ II. manumit, v.
(mænjuːˈmɪt)
[ad. L. manūmittĕre, ante-class. manū ēmittĕre, lit. to send forth from one's ‘hand’, i.e. from one's control. Cf. OF. manumetre, manumiter, Sp. manumitir, It. mano-, manimettere.]
1. trans. To release from slavery; to release from bondage or servitude; to set free.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) VI. 283 But this Kenulphus..manumitte this kynge at the hie awter. ? 1538 Leland Itin. II. 55 One of the Erles of Cornewalle hering them secretly to lament their state, manumittid them for Mony. 1590 Swinburne Testaments 196 If the testator do make his owne villeine executor, he doth manumit..his villeine from bondage. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. ii. Disc. ix. 108 Christian masters were not bound to manumit their slaves. a 1671 Ld. Fairfax Mem. in Arb. Garner VIII. 574, I thought fit to manumit the Lord Capel, the Lord Norwich, &c. over to the Parliament. 1757 Burke Abridgm. Eng. Hist. ii. ii. Wks. X. 267 The clergy..manumitted their new vassals. 1840 Poe Gold Bug Wks. 1864 I. 93 An old negro, called Jupiter, who had been manumitted, before the reverses of the family. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1594 Nashe Unfort. Trav. I 2 b, My hand and my knife shall manumit mee out of the horrour of minde I endure. 1598 Marston Pygmal. etc. Reactio 66 Come, manumit thy plumie pinion, And scower the sword of Eluish champion. 1644 R. Stapylton Juvenal vi. 523 The Matron of the wheele in councell sits, Whose needle now her Lady manumits. 1653 Gauden Hierasp. 27 Striplings..which have but lately been manumitted from the rod and ferula. 1877 Sparrow Serm. iv. 43 A bondage to Satan, from which none can manumit us but the Son. |
| absol. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iv. 667 Happy Day! that breaks our Chain; That manumits; that calls from Exile home. 1880 Muirhead Gaius i. §36 It is not every man who pleases that can manumit. |
† 2. To graduate or confer a degree upon. Sc. Obs.
| 1607 in Craufurd Hist. Univ. Edin. 65 The 20th class..were manumitted with the magisteriall dignity, some 27 in number. 1635 ibid. 126 The 47th class..were solemnly manumitted in the lower hall of the Colledge. |
Hence manuˈmitted, manuˈmitting ppl. adjs. Also manuˈmitter, one who manumits.
| 1616 B. Holyday Persius v. 214 Knowst thou no other Master, but he whom The Manumitting rod did free thee from? 1685 Cotton tr. Montaigne (1711) I. xxiii. 159 A mean manumitted slave. 1693 W. Bowles in Dryden's Juvenal v. (1697) 108 At last thou wilt..receive the manumitting Blow On thy shav'd slavish Head. 1863 G. J. Whyte-Melville Gladiators I. 55 These manumitted slaves were usually bound by the ties of interest. 1865 Mozley Mirac. vii. 145 The Church was the great manumitter and improver of the condition of the serf. 1875 Poste Gaius i. (ed. 2) §39 The motives valid when the manumitting owner is under twenty, are admissible when the manumitted slave is under thirty. |