▪ I. eˈxonerate, pple. Obs. exc. arch.
Also 6 exoneratt.
[ad. L. exonerāt-us, pa. pple. of exonerāre: see next.]
Used as pa. pple. of next.
| 1528 in Burnet Hist. Ref. II. 83 How may his Holiness find his Conscience towards God exonerate. 1546 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. viii. 219 [They] shalbe clerely exoneratt & dyscharged of beryng eny maner of Armour. 1621 Bolton Stat. Irel. 275 (an. 2 Eliz.) To be cleerly exonerate, acquited, and discharged. 1868 Lowell Willows in Amer. Poems (Routl.) 372 By right of birth exonerate from toil. |
▪ II. exonerate, v.
(ɛgˈzɒnəreɪt)
Also 6–7 -at.
[f. L. exonerāt- ppl. stem of exonerā-re, f. ex- (see ex- prefix1) + oner-, onus burden. Cf. Fr. exonérer.]
1. trans. To take off a burden from; to relieve of (a burden, material or immaterial); to unload, lighten (a ship); also humorously, to ‘relieve’ (a person) of his money. Now rare.
| 1524 Hen. VIII. in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. App. xiii. 30 Discharging or exonerating their galeis. 1566 Painter Pal. Pleas. I. 46 [They] haue prayed to God to be exonerated of loue, aboue all other diseases. 1615 T. Adams Spir. Navigator 34 He strives to exonerate his shoulders. a 1634 Chapman Bacchus 110 Exonerate Our sinking vessel of his deified lode. 1637 Bastwick Litany iii. 13 They would quickly exonerate their families of them. 1640 Bp. Reynolds Passions xxi. 218 It exonerateth the mind of all those dulling Indispositions. 1785 Burke Sp. Nabob Arcot's Debts Wks. IV. 308 The debt thus exonerated of so great a weight of its odium. 1798 Wellington in Owen Disp. 29 Success would certainly exonerate our finances. 1807–8 Syd. Smith Plymley's Lett. x, Be exonerated of his ready money and his constitution. |
† 2. To discharge the contents of (the body, an organ), esp. by evacuation. to exonerate nature, exonerate oneself: to relieve the bowels. Obs.
| 1542 Boorde Dyetary viii. (1870) 248 And exonerate your selfe at all tymes that nature wold expell. Ibid. xxx. 293 To exonerat the blader and the bely whan nede shall requyre. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 65 They sit all the day long, vnlesse they rise to exonerate nature. 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 149 [They] over-load their mouthes..and by a sudden laughter exonerate their chaps. 1710 T. Fuller Pharm. Extemp. 322 Cachectic Pills..exonerate the Habit of the Body. 1829 Health & Longevity 269 The bowels..ought to be exonerated at least once in two days. |
† b. intr. for refl. Obs.
| 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xiii. §1. 178 Over⁓charged..till they..exonerate as a Wolfe or Dog, too full gorged, with Carion. 1704 J. Pitts Relig. & Mann. Mahometans iv. 25 These Moors..accounting it a great piece of Rudeness to exonerate in the sight of another. 1762 B. Stillingfl. Econ. Nat. Misc. Tracts 123 Care is taken that these animals should exonerate upon stones, etc. |
† 3. refl. Of a lake, river, sea, etc., also of a blood-vessel: To empty itself, its waters, or contents; to disembogue, discharge. Obs.
| 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 113 Neither did this riuer exonerate itself into any sea. 1635 Jackson Creed viii. xx. Wks. VIII. 43 We all meet in the main or ocean whereinto this psalm and others do exonerate themselves. 1659 Macallo Can. Physick 25 The great Veines..do exonerate themselves into the little. 1715 Halley in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 298 That [gulf] of Paria, into which the Lake of Titicaca does in part exonerate it self. |
† 4. trans. a. To discharge, pour off (a fluid product, a body of water). b. To cast off, get rid of (persons, population). Obs. rare.
| a. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 429 It [the bile] is..exonerated into that which is called the Caua or hollow veine. 1635 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. ii. vi. 96 The streitnesse of the channell, wherein a great..sea is to bee exonerated. 1672 Phil. Trans. VII. 5009 The Lympha does wholly exonerate itself into the sub-clavial and jugular veins. |
| b. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World i. viii. §4 These borderers..might exonerate their swelling multitudes. 1657 M. Hawke Killing is M. 23 Whereby such nefarious and facinerous persons may be exonerated. |
5. To relieve from, † of (anything burdensome, a duty, obligation, payment, task, etc.).
| 1548 Hall Chron. 227 That he might..exonerate them of the great charges, travayles & labors, that they now were in. c 1555 Harpsfield Divorce Hen. VIII (1878) 25 Would God Sir Thomas Moore..had exonerated and discharged me of this my pains & labour. 1692 Lond. Gaz. No. 2786/3 To exonerate and discharge them from all Arrears of Heath-money. 1783 Burke Rep. Affairs India Wks. 1842 II. 62 Mr. Hastings..offered to exonerate the company from that ‘charge’. 1835 I. Taylor Spir. Despot. ii. 75 A body of clergy exonerated of all solicitude. 1851 Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers ii. 2 Commanding Royal Engineers will not exonerate any Officers..from the performance of such Duties. |
6. To free from blame; to exculpate; also, to relieve from the blame or burden of; to relieve or set free from (blame, reproach).
| 1575 Churchyard Chippes (1817) 40 That lord Oxford might be induced..to exonerate Churchyard. 1654 H. L'Estrange Chas. I (1655) 21 Nothing would prevail, nor would the Duke be exonerated. 1678 R. Barclay Apol. Quakers v. §12. 136 Such a season..sufficiently exonerateth God of every Man's Condemnation. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. I. 334 To exonerate myself of a greater crime. 1825 F. Burney Diary I. 561 To exonerate her from the banal reproach of yielding unresisting to her passions. a 1848 R. W. Hamilton Rew. & Punishm. viii. 489 Do we seek to exonerate His justice..by the denial of His faithfulness? 1884 Pae Eustace 187, I won't exonerate the Government. |