Definition of "discharge"

discharge

/dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/

verb
third-person singular simple present discharges, present participle discharging, simple past and past participle discharged
1. To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
  Quotations
  O most dear mistress, / The sun will set before I shall discharge / What I must strive to do.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene i]
2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.
  Quotations
  But in deede, the ſecret cauſe that brought Ageſilaus to conſent vnto this practiſe, was the greatnes of his dette which he ought, of the which he hoped to be diſcharged by chaunging of the ſtate and common wealth.
  1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “Agis and Cleomenes”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, page 851
  For if One Man's Faults could Discharge Another Man of his Duty,there would be no longer any Place left for the Common Offices of Society.
  1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […]
  How happy is his low degree, / How rich in humble poverty, is he, / Who leads a quiet country life; / Diſcharg'd of buſineſs, void of ſtrife, / And from the griping ſcrivener free?
  a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Second Epode of Horace”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume II, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, page 477
3. To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
  Quotations
  If he had / The present money to discharge the Jew.
  c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii]
4. To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
  Quotations
  The order for Daly's attendance was discharged.
  1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans
5. To expel or let go.
  Quotations
  Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.
  January 1, 1878, Herbert Spencer, Ceremonial Government, published in The Fortnightly Review No. 132
6. To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
  Quotations
  They do discharge their shot of courtesy.
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
  Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]
  1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […]
7. (electricity) To release (an accumulated charge).
8. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
  Quotations
  Discharge the common sort / With pay and thanks.
  c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v]
  Grindal […] was discharged the government of his see.
  1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916
  1. (medicine) To release (an inpatient) from hospital.
  2. (military) To release (a member of the armed forces) from service.
9. To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty.
10. To operate (any weapon that fires a projectile, such as a shotgun or sling).
  Quotations
  discharge his pieces
  1603, Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turkes, […], London: […] Adam Islip
  I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.
  1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp.; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I, II, or III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927,
11. (logic) To release (an auxiliary assumption) from the list of assumptions used in arguments, and return to the main argument.
12. To unload a ship or another means of transport.
13. To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled.
14. To give forth; to emit or send out.
15. To let fly; to give expression to; to utter.
16. (transitive, textiles) To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.
17. (obsolete, Scotland) To prohibit; to forbid.
  Quotations
  That Richard Stevenson, Robert Calcott, and Richard Tyldesley, be discharged from farther restraint, giving good security to appear at this Board whensoever summoned, and not depart this city until full satisfaction be given
  1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural discharges
1. The act of expelling or letting go.
  1. (medicine) The act of releasing an inpatient from hospital.
  2. (military) The act of releasing a member of the armed forces from service.
2. The act of firing a projectile, especially from a firearm.
3. The process of removing the load borne by something.
4. The process of flowing out.
  1. (medicine, uncountable) Pus or exudate or mucus (but in modern usage not exclusively blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to pathological or hormonal changes.
5. (electricity) The act of releasing an accumulated charge.
6. (hydrology) The volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m3/s (cubic meters per second).
7. The act of accomplishing (an obligation) or repaying a debt etc.; performance.
  Quotations
  Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge.
  1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
  She [the Queen] was assisted in the discharge of her solemn functions by fourteen sacred women, one for each of the altars of Dionysus.
  1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 137

Definition of "discharge"

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