▪ I. ‖ liberate, n. Law. Obs. exc. Hist.
(lɪbəˈreɪtiː)
Also 6 -at.
[subst. use of med.L. līberāte ‘deliver ye’ (imperative pl. of līberāre to deliver), the word with which the writ commenced.]
1. a. A writ issued out of Chancery for the payment of a pension or other royal allowance. b. A writ to the sheriff of a county for the delivery of land and goods taken upon the forfeiture of a recognizance. c. A writ issued out of Chancery to a jailer for the delivery of a prisoner who has put in bail for his appearance.
| [1535 Fitzherb. Nat. Brev. (1567) 132 Vn briefe al vicount hors de chancery a deliuer a luy ceux terres et biens al value de dette &c. le quel briefe est appell'vn liberate.] 1581 Lambarde Eiren. iii. ii. (1588) 349, I will shew you one forme of a Baile, and another of the Liberate. 1590 Acts Privy Council (1899) XIX. 297 A writ of extent with a liberat therin unto the Shreef of the said towne hath bene sued out of that Court of the Common Pleas. a 1625 Sir H. Finch Law (1636) 181 If a Liberate be deliuered to the Clarke of the Hamper, who hath assets in his hands. 1674 T. Turnor Case Bankers & Creditors ii. 7 The King hath charged himself to the Subject by Talley and liberate to pay a summe of money out of his Customes. |
2. transf.
| 1639 Fuller Holy War iv. v. (1640) 174 Denying the Infallibility of the Church..the overplus of Merits, Service understood, Indulgences, Liberaties out of Purgatorie, and the like. |
3. attrib.: liberate day, a day on which liberates were issued; liberate roll, the account formerly kept of pensions and other allowances made under the great seal.
| 1642 C. Vernon Consid. Exchequer 18 The said Treasurers Remembrancer is..at the next Liberate or Sealing day, to make forth the strongest proces to the Sheriffes. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. I. xiii. 598 The Pipe Rolls of Henry II are supplemented under John by Oblate, Liberate, and Mise Rolls. |
▪ II. † liberate, a. (and pa. pple.) Obs.
[ad. L. līberāt-us, pa. pple. of līberāre to liberate.]
Liberated, free. Const. from.
| 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 46 b/2 That the matter might have the liberater a passage to enter forth at. 1637 Gillespie Eng. Pop. Cerem. i. viii. 25 The Christian Church..is liberate from the Pedagogicall instruction of the Ceremoniall Law. 1671 True Nonconf. 125 The old dispensation from which we are liberate. 1752 J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 63 The Prisoner [shall be] immediately liberate from his Imprisonment. |
▪ III. liberate, v.
(ˈlɪbəreɪt)
Also 7 -at.
[f. L. līberāt-, ppl. stem of līberāre, f. līber free.]
trans. a. To set free, set at liberty; to free, release from (something). Chem. To set free from combination.
| 1623 Cockeram, Liberate, to free one. c 1650 Don Bellianis 206 Four thousand Knights that came to liberate their King. 1671 True Nonconf. 131 Jesus Christ..liberats the Worship of God from the shadows. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. v. iii. (1869) I. 533 By liberating the public revenue, they might restore vigour to that government of which they themselves had the principal direction. 1784 Cowper Task iv. 97 Advanced to some..more than mortal height, That lib'rates and exempts me from them all. 1805 W. Saunders Min. Waters 377 The portion of acid thus liberated. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 112, I will liberate him from his present sufferings. 1867 Smiles Huguenots Eng. x. (1880) 172 The six slaves..were eventually liberated by the crew of an English vessel. 1878 Browning La Saisiaz 52 Walking slow..Liberates the brain o'erloaded. |
b. To free (an occupied territory) of the enemy; also ironically, to subject to a new tyranny.
| 1944 G. B. Shaw Let. 4 Dec. in To a Young Actress (1960) 181 All your Italian friends must be starving now that we have ‘liberated’ them. 1955 Ann. Reg. 1954 303 Chu Teh..expressed China's intention of ‘liberating’ Formosa. 1961 Listener 28 Dec. 1100/2 President Sukarno's warning to Indonesian troops to be ready to ‘liberate’ West New Guinea. 1964 A. McKee Caen xix. 314 ‘This place sure has been liberated,’ said an American M.P. to an H.C.R. crew, when eventually they reached the waste of brick and stone which had been Vire. 1971 A. Bullock 20th Cent. iii. 76/2 The West had the great advantage of being liberated by the Americans and British, neither of whom wanted to stay. 1975 Times 1 May 1/2 At 11.30 am local time (03.30 GMT), according to Hanoi Radio, Saigon was ‘liberated’. |
c. To loot (property), to misappropriate. slang.
| 1944 Daily Express 7 Oct. 4/3 (caption) Excuse me, Canon, but I rather think you've liberated my matches. 1946 E. Linklater Private Angelo viii. 86 Those soldiers, who said they had liberated the turkeys and the geese, had taken a most drastic way of giving them their freedom. 1957 [see careen v. 5]. 1965 G. Melly Owning-Up vi. 59 He..wore a sombrero liberated, I suspect, from the wardrobe of some Latin American group he had worked with in the past. 1970 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 1 May 9 Shoplifting—‘liberating’ to hippies—costs the English retail trade the staggering sum of {pstlg}75 million a year. 1974 S. E. Morison European Discovery of America: Southern Voyages viii. 164 Drake's flagship Golden Hind carried no bell, but his men ‘liberated’ one from the church of Guatulco, Mexico, in 1579. |
d. To free from social or male-dominated, etc., conventions.
| 1970 New Yorker 5 Dec. 49/1 It is not only men liberated. It is women liberated. 1971 E. Afr. Jrnl. Mar. 9/1 Aunt Bimp..goes into the construction business..She knows nothing about cement and sand but the corruption of the system has served to liberate her. 1975 D. Ramsay Descent into Dark i. 25 Put ‘Ms Joyce Chandler’. Let them get the idea you're liberating yourself from the Kitchen on principle. |
Hence ˈliberating ppl. a.
| 1868 Browning Ring & Bk. iii. 1296 Thanks to His liberating angel Death. 1883 R. Zimmermann in Athenæum 29 Dec. 844/3 The prophet of a liberating..movement. |