emit, v.
(ɪˈmɪt)
[ad. L. ēmittĕ-re to send forth, f. ē out + mittĕ-re to send.]
trans. To send forth: in certain special senses. (Not used with personal obj.)
1. To send forth as a stream or emanation. a. To send forth, discharge (as a liquid or plastic substance); to exude (juices, etc.).
| 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iii. xiii. 137 [The liquid secreted by toads] is emitted aversely or backward. 1712 Pope Spect. No. 408 ¶3 So pure a Fountain emits no..troubled Waters. 1813 Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 249 A tree which emits sap copiously from a wound. 1835–6 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 209/1 The threads by which the spiders suspend themselves..are emitted from the extremity of the abdomen. 1879 Sir J. Lubbock Sci. Lect. iii. 71 The aphis emits a drop of sweet fluid. |
b. To give off, throw out (‘effluvia’, light, heat, gases, flames, sparks, etc.).
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §259 Both of them..do not appear to emit any Corporal substance. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 227 By effluvia and spirits that are emitted. 1756–7 tr. Keysler's Trav. IV. 452 The water..emits an ill smell. 1794 J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 206 Those bodies may be heated so as to emit light. 1848 A. Jameson Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850) 64 The earth emits flames. 1869 E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) 89 An adult man..emits..carbonic acid gas by the skin. |
| fig. 1805 Foster Ess. i. ii. 27 Emitting sentiment at every pore. |
¶ intr.| 1886 Daily News 16 Sept. 7/2 Summoned..for..permitting..smells to emit from his stable. |
c. transf.| 1754 Hume Hist. Eng. I. iii. 67 That multitude of nations which she had successively emitted. |
† 2. To throw out as an offshoot.
Obs.| 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 117 More fresh sprouts..are emitted. 1676 Worlidge Cyder (1691) 57 Before its wound be healed, and new fibres emitted. 1756 P. Browne Jamaica 105 This plant..emits a few..stalks. |
3. To give forth (sound).
| 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxxii. 339 They emit a grating noise. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. §1. 224 A bell struck in a vacuum emits no sound. 1876 Smiles Sc. Natur. vii. (ed. 4) 107 It did not emit any cry, such as the hare does. |
4. To utter, give expression to (a statement, opinions, etc.).
| 1753 Stewart's Trial App. 4 All these declarations were emitted by the..persons..mentioned. 1805 Foster Ess. iii. i. 5 Emit plenty of antipathy in a few syllables. 1818 Mill Brit. India II. iv. vii. 261 Complaints were..emitted of the scarcity of money. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. (1858) 179 How could a man..emit [thoughts] in a shape bordering so closely on the absurd? |
† 5. To issue, publish (books, documents, notices).
Obs.| 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 361 Papers and books emitted for cleareing the wickednes of the Prelatt's apostasie. 1723 Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 6 The public papers emitted that and next year. 1726 Ayliffe Parerg. 180 A Citation.. ought to be..emitted by the Judges Authority. 1779 Johnson Life Pope Wks. IV. 23 Pope having now emitted his proposals. 1847 Sir W. Hamilton Letter 37 But this declaration, now emitted, is contradicted by that very declaration, emitted in February. |
6. To issue formally and by authority (edicts, proclamations; also, and now chiefly, paper currency, bills, etc.).
| 1649 Bp. Guthrie Mem. (1702) 103 A Declaration Emitted by the English Parliament. 1672 Clarendon Ess. in Tracts (1727) 265 Lewis..condemned that excommunication and the pope that emitted it. 1761–2 Hume Hist. Eng. (1806) V. lxxi. 279 The edicts emitted..still wanted much of the authority of laws. 1791 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) III. 268 A dollar of silver disappears for every dollar of paper emitted. 1863 Dicey Federal St. I. 124 No State shall..emit bills of credit. |
† 7. To send forth, let fly, discharge (a missile).
| 1704 Swift Batt. Bks. (1711) 263 Having emitted his Launce against so great a Leader. c 1720 Prior 2nd Hymn of Callimachus to Apollo Poems 244 Lest..the far⁓shooting God emit His fatal arrows. |